BURN
by atomicage334
Summary: born as a sacrifice, life as a weapon. Naruto is one of Konahas elite, however through out his life he has always been searching for a purpose for his existence this is the story of his life as he falls into the darkness of insanity. M for blood no pair
1. Chapter 1

BURN

A/N: recently I've been on a final fantasy 7 kick and been looking threw a number of stories, and although there are a few good ones out there, I feel that the silver haired bad guy is severely underrepresented. As such I feel it's my civic duty to do my part and give the man another story, kind of, more of an homage really, but it's pretty obvious that I'm basing my story off him. Any way I'll just let you read the story and you'll see what I'm talking about (hopefully).

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Prologue

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For as long as he could remember he had always known something was different about him. He wasn't blind nor was he stupid. When he had been younger he had seen how the other children had played in the park, had gone shopping with their parents, gone to school to learn whatever it was that they taught there, a million other little things that he had never done. And even then looking at their happy faces he had felt nothing, no jealousy, no envy; no anger just a cool indifference. And that was when he had first thought that there was something truly different about him, not because he had never done any of those things but because he simply did not care that he had not. He knew that he should feel something, he may not of been an expert on psychology but he knew that there should of been something. And even in the face of this revelation he felt nothing; he simply accepted that that was just how he was. Sure he was a little curios, but he was content with his life, and truly why would he even want to be like the other children playing happily under the protective watch of their parents eye.

It was only a few years later that he discovered just how different he was from those around him. In all honesty he had discovered his curse/gift/burden; still he did not know how to classify the creature that had become his unwilling tenant. He had finished a long day of training and was sitting in his room meditating like his sensei's had taught him, however unlike the many time he had done this particular exercise in the past something new had happened. At first it had felt like a thought on the fringe of his mind, a memory long forgotten. As he focussed on it had become stronger transforming from a foggy memory to a presence in the back of his mind. Eventually it had turned into a towering inferno of emotions and thoughts alien to his own and before he could pull back the world around him bleed into black and all he was able to see was a set of looming rusted bars standing ominously before him. For once in his relatively short life he had felt a number of emotions coursing threw him. Confusion, surprise, awe, even fear all these new felling coursing threw him all at once was almost too much and he found that his legs could no longer support his body and he fell to his knees. Intellectually he knew what the creature before him was, the nine long tails waving like some kind of raging inferno behind it were a dead giveaway. Thought he was slightly confused as to why he was seeing it, he had been told the creature had died years ago. However on a far deeper level he saw, no something like this can't be seen, no he felt something drastically different. It was power. Undiluted, unrestrained, uncontrollable power and he could not help but feel awe upon seeing the large, red silted eyes staring down at him. unfortunately that awe was not to last, for all the power it possessed it was still nothing more than a mindless beast only capable of roaring and thrashing about in its cage. And for the first time in his like he felt sympathy, no not sympathy. Truthfully he was not sure what he felt, sadness perhaps but that was to simple a word. Empathy perhaps as he could see himself in the fox in some way. He was training to be strong, to be powerful but here before him was something almost godly in strength but still just a mindless beast and he wondered if that would happen to him, if at some point he would become so powerful that he himself would become like the beast in the cage in front of him and for the first time he well and truly felt fear.

It was not long after he had come to this disturbing conclusion that he returned to his room as if none of the previous events had happened. He had gone to one of his sensei's about what he had seen and in doing so learned just how different he was. He was the jinchuuriki of the kyuubi no kitsune, a human sacrifice, made to protect the people of the village from the great beast wrath. This was all true and in more than one sense. He knew that his life was anything but normal that he was being trained harder than any of the other children his age, that more was expected of him than of others that he was being moulded, shaped into something the village could use to protect its self that in a sense of a word he was being sacrificed again for the greater good of the village and the people living inn it. no he was not stupid he saw what was happening had seen it even before he had meet the kyuubi this revelation simply gave his life context. And he was fine with that, he would be their sword, their shield whatever they needed him for, but the lesson he had learned from his meeting with the fox would stay with him and he vowed to himself that he would never become like that, that no matter how strong he became, no matter what he became in the future never be like that, That he would always have a purpose in this world, and if some day he lost his that purpose than he would make it his to find a new one. Yes he had learned his lesson well. No matter what he had to do, no matter what he had to become there would always be a reason for him to exist, even if he had to burn the world to ash to find it.

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Chapter one

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It was days like this that he felt every one of his almost 70 years of life and times like this when he truly envied his predecessors, all of whom had died at a relatively young age defending the village. None of them had had to the time to look back on their lives and see all the mistakes they had made and to have the time to regret the things they had been forced to do to protect their village. But not him, he had held this office for more than half his life and now in his old age he found himself looking back on his life more and more. Sure there where good time. He remembered his genin days fondly, they may not of been the most peaceful times but he had been young and the world was new to him and most of all it had been simple, he did what his sensei told him to do. There were no thoughts about the questionable morality of his chosen profession, no over baring responsibility on his shoulders that he could not even escape in his own home now. No life had been simple back then and more than anything he wished that life could have stayed that way. But that's not the way the world works. He had grown up and his youthful naivety had left him and it its place a sense of fatalistic realism had taken its place and he saw how the world truly was. That by definition ninja were forced to sacrifice their honour, and in many cases much more for the good of their village and as Hokage he was sometimes forced to make that decision for them. And that thought brought him to the innocuous file sitting on the desk in front of him. There was nothing particularly special or even classified about it and it was hardly the first time he had read one, after all. All ninja, especially anbu, were required to go for a psych evaluation at least once a year. However it was the subject of the report that had made Sarutobi feel every day of his age. Regret, almost overpowering regret hit him every time he read his name, saw his face, talked to the boy. He was his greatest failure, one he regretted more than any other in his life, even more than the incident with his traitorous student. But back to the psych report, there was nothing new in it that he had not read in previous ones but that did not make it any easier on him to read. A worrying disconnect with the world around him. Almost complete emotional detachment, though there was at least a little hope on that front, he knew that he had at least a few ... he wasn't sure he would use the word friends but it was close enough for him. A complete lack of empathy, the list went on and on. He was happy to say that the boy still retained some emotion it had it was just incredible muted almost to the point where no one else could detect it. But it was the disconnect with the world around him that had Sarutobi the most worried. After all a ninja with no ties to his village was almost guaranteed to go missing nin eventually, and for someone like Naruto their wasn't even the fear of being hunted to hold him back after all one did not become a s-class nin at thirteen without having the power to back up his claims and in all honesty as it was he could probably count the number of people that might have a chance against the boy on one hand and he had no doubts that as the years went by that number would steadily drop until the boy truly became peerless.

No more, he had to take charge of this situation he had let the council run the boy's life for long enough now and he would be dammed if he lost one of his ninja to the foolishness of the old fools down the hall. It was his job to keep the village safe even if it was from itself. Now the only question was what the hell was he going to do? How did you reverse years of ingrained behaviour? This was a problem he knew was going to keep him up at nights until he figured out a solution, so for the sake of his sleep cycle he put down his pen turned his char to the large window in the back of his office stared out over the village he had given so much for and turned all his mental processes to the problem that was Uzumaki Naruto.

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He was sitting on the roof of anbu HQ staring staring up at the night sky, he wasn't sure why but he had always been drawn to the night sky. However even if he wasn't sure why he knew that this was one of the few places he could get even a moments peace in this world. A world he was finding harder and harder to understand. He had been alive for almost thirteen years now and he found that as each year went by the world started to make less and less sense. Well that wasn't entirely true nature made sense to him, animals, plants, rivers and oceans he could find some semblance of logic and reason there. It was the people that inhabited it that he had trouble understanding. Oh he knew he was different, had a different way of seeing thing, a different way of living his life that he was raised different than others even that he housed a demon, all these things made him different but still at the end of the day he was still human so it made no sense to him as to why he was simply unable to connect with others. Was it him, was he lacking something important that allowed others to understand one another or was it simply that he had become so different from the rest that they others no longer looked at him as though he was still human. He didn't know, he probably would never know he simple found it too difficult to think like them, he wasn't even sure how they though. So instead of trying he retreated into himself, tried to reason out there behaviour and when he could find no reason for their actions, their thoughts, even for their existence he left them and instead found solace in things that did make sense, the night sky, the stars and planets moving around in their pre set courses, a river flowing down and eroding stones in its path, even birds flying through the air all these thing mad perfect logical sense to him and he found comfort in their logic.

Unfortunately his internal musing was interrupted as he felt the air being displaced indicating that someone had just shushine'd behind him. "hello sempi, a beautiful night, no?" he greeted one of the few people he might call a friend, he was still unsure of the exact meaning of the word but the man standing behind him was one of the few people he had meet that did not completely confuse him, he was also one of the few that seemed willing to put up with his admittedly cold personality.

"Ah, Naruto so this is where you ran off to. And here I was thinking you had finally found yourself a girlfriend."

He was also the most annoying person he knew, well certainly in the top ten at any rate.

"Why you persist in concerning yourself in my love life I will never understand. Besides you are very well aware that I do not have nor have I ever had a girlfriend, and if you're going to go out of your way to annoy me than you could at least try to be a little more creative." He answered without turning his head to the man still standing behind him.

"Maa, maa. What can I say, you ran off so fast that I didn't have a chance to think up anything better. Besides even if it is a little overused you can never go wrong with a classic. Besides I'm pretty sure I've been telling you to call me kakashi for longer than I've been teasing you about you lack of arm candy." Kakashi answered taking a seat beside his younger friend.

All Naruto could do was shake his head in annoyance. "Perhaps but I'm sure that you didn't come here to nag at me about my lack of 'arm candy' so to speak."

"You wound me, can't I just drop by to visit my ever so cute little friend." He teased. Naruto only gave him a level stare. "Hee, hee, right," he laughed rubbing the back of his head. "well the Hokage did mention something about wanting to see you tomorrow or something, I wasn't really listening, you see I had just gotten to the art where Moroko had confessed he undying love foe shinji and was about to remove ...." he was unable to finish due to a small perverted giggle.

All Naruto could do was roll his eyes at his friend. He may have been one of the strongest people in the village, but that certainly didn't stop him from being a pervert. "You know one of these days someone's going to use that book against you somehow and then will see who gets the last laugh." He said before standing up and walking over to the far end of the building and shushining to his apartment for a well deserved rest.

Back on the roof of anbu HQ kakashi sat quietly looking back to the spot his younger friend had disappeared on and slowly let out a small sigh. He had know the younger man for almost nine years now ever since he had been assigned to help train him along with a number of other anbu and in that time he felt he had gotten to know him rather well, relatively speaking, he doubted that anyone really knew what exactly he was thinking. And for the first time in his life could say that he had found some one that was more fucked up than he was. Sure he hid it well, they both did, he with his little perverted book and the time he spent staring at the memorial stone and Naruto with his cold professional manner. But he knew that if he was being honest with himself that he had more than his fair share of mental problem, most shinobi who live long enough to make anbu do, but the boy he had come to see as a friend had him and most probably every one else beat hands down. And the fact that he had not cracked yet was a testament to his will power, but kakashi knew that it would happen, sooner or later no one could live that kind of a life and not. And to be honest kakashi truly hoped that he was nowhere near when it happened, it might sound cruel and uncaring but kakashi knew that when it did happen that it would be big messy and the chances of anything in the vicinity living long enough to tell the tail were slim to none. So he did what he could, he tried to help the boy interact with others, to explain emotions like love, and empathy when the boy became confused by the actions of the people around them and he hoped and prayed that he would someday finally understand what it meant to be human, though he may not of held out much hope for that ever happening it was the least he could do, after all anbu looked out for each other, they had to, if they didn't then they would all end up alone and even crazier then they all ready were.

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"... What?" he asked with barely concealed annoyance.

"I thought I was rather clear but if you want the condensed version than I'm ordering you to become a jounin sensei." Sarutobi said as if he was discussing the weather.

"But ... why? I mean I'm I was never even a genin myself; I don't even know the first thing about it. besides it would be a waste of recourses, if I was teaching them I would be unable to perform my regular duties, what if something came up that need my attention?" the truth was he simply didn't want to be forced to be near anyone his own age, he had enough problems understanding the other anbu members and now he was going to be forced to be around people his own age, the though alone was enough to send a shiver down his spine.

"Oh it won't be that hard, teach them some of the basics, do a few D-rank missions, it's simple. And as for wasting 'resources', don't worry we got along fine before you and I'm sure that will survive without you for a while. Besides, if and I do mean if something were to come up that needed your personal touch I'm sure I could find a substitute replacement to teach in your steed while you were away. As for why, well I'm an old man and as such I've earn the right to make life difficult for young people such as yourself. Now if there's nothing more," he gave the young man standing on the other side of his desk a stern glare that told him there was nothing more. "You're to report to the academy at noon today to pick up you team." He paused to search through a stack of folders on his desk before throwing one at him. "You'll find everything you need to know about them in there, dismissed." And with that turn back to doing his paperwork.

He just stood there stunned for a moment trying to come up with some way he could get out of doing this. Unfortunately the Hokage had been rather forceful about this mission and he knew that his word was law and he was now stuck training a bunch of bats (never mind the fact they were the same age). "Hai Hokage-sama." He said with a crisp salute before shushaning out of the office.

Once he was sure that the boy was gone Sarutobi let out a little chuckle. It may not have been perfect but it was the best he was able to come up with. hopefully interacting with people his own age would bring the boy out of his shell, or at the very least the genin would annoy him to the point he wasn't able to simply internalize it, though that option had the potential for a number of dead genin but the chances of that happening were rather small and it was a chance he was willing to take. After all he had been Hokage for far too long now and he needed to find someone to take his place, and Naruto was rather high on his short list. He had all the power he needed all he needed now was to develop some sense of humanity and he would be perfect to take his place in a few years. Laughing a little at the thought of Naruto buried under a pile of paper work he turned his attention back to his own, sent it his strongest death glare in the hope that just this one time it would burst into flame, and when no flames were coming he let out a sigh and began to read reports about some complaint from some merchant about some other merchant.

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A/N: just the prologue, sorry it's so short I just want to see if people are interested in reading this. If I decided to continue this I'll probably just make this part of the first chapter and keep going. Anyways as I said my Naruto's going to be based vey heavily on sephiroth (unfortunately I haven't played crises core so I'm sorry if my Naruto's a little different) also a few people from the game will be making an appearance (minor characters mostly Hojo will be the most prominent) but mostly I'm going to try and work with the characters in the manga. Anyways that's all for now let me know what you think, If I don't get enough review then I'll assume no one wants to read this and I'll probably go back to my repo story.

As you can see I just added my first chapter underneath of my prologue. Also I would like to apologise for my lack of action I just wanted to get all this psycho babble out of the way early to make it up I promise some kind of fight scene in the next chapter. Also as you can guess without Naruto there the genin teams are going to be all fucked up so who he ends up with could be any one so if you have any suggestions I'd like to hear them. I already have an idea of who I'm going to use but you never know one of you guys might think of something I misses so let me know.

Well that's it for now and as always reviews are very much appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

BURN

It was the day of team assignments and sakura was understandably nervous. The next few years of her life would revolve around today's announcement. Undoubtedly she would become friends with however she was teamed with; one couldn't spend that amount of time with someone and not become at least casual friends. Not to mention this was her one best shot at becoming close to the ever reclusive Sasuke. Just the thought of being on the same team as him was enough to almost make her brake out in a fangirlish squeal. He had this dark broody feel to him and with his tragic past she just knew all he need was for her to come in and fix him and that he would be so grateful he would have no choice but to return her feeling and then ... this time she actual did let out a squeal.

The rest of the class just turned their head to stare at their obviously insane pink haired classmates.

"Anyway. As I was saying team one will be..." most of the class just tuned out iruka's voice only really listening when they heard their own name called. "Team seven will be Sakura Haruno," sakuras head shot up and as she crossed her fingers well sending a hopeful look the dark haired boy sitting a few seats to her right. "Sasuke Uchiha," sakura let out an ear splitting cry of joy before turning to her perpetual rival in all things Sasuke and promptly started one of their usual arguments which as always devolved into childish name calling. "ah-hem," iruka tried to get everyone's attention back on him as he still had a number of teams to announce. Unfortunately both sakura and ino were so into their argument that his own attempt at intervening had gone completely unnoticed. "Shut the hell up!" thank the kami for his devil head jutsu. "Now as I was saying. Team seven will be Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and Kiba Inuzuka. Your jounin sensei will be Naruto Uzumaki." He was more than a little surprised when he announced the team sensei. As their academy teacher he had a hand in making genin teams as well as picking which sensei should go with which team. The last he had checked it was suppose to be Hakate Kakashi leading team seven. It was all more than a little suspicious but the list had the Hokage's signature on it so he guessed it must have been a last minute decision.

It only took him a few more minutes before he had finished the list. "Alright your dismissed for lunch, just remember your jounin sensei's will be arriving after lunch so be sure to be back before the bell rings." He had barley finished before all the students ran out the door nearly trammelling him in the process. Now that he had almost an hour before his students would be back he had time to ponder this new development with team sevens sensei. Granted it had been years since he had even thought about the host of the nine tails. After all he had all but disappeared after the Hokage had made the announcement about him. Truth be told now that he had time to think about it this situation was getting weirder and weirder. Unless he was mistaken the boy should only be about the same age as the rest of the class that had just graduated. That meant he had to of been in the ninja corps. For years now to be considered strong enough to be a jounin sensei. That though alone made him uneasy. Add onto that he was the container of the kyuubi and iruka was starting to question just how stable someone like that could be. Unfortunately it was not up to him and he was forced to follow the orders of the Hokage just like everyone else.

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Lunch had passed by quickly and soon everyone found themselves back in their old classroom for the last time. Most were talking excitedly with their new team mates, though in some cases this was more one sided than others.

"So now that were on the same team and all do you want to go out and get something to eat or something." Asked sakura sitting of to the left of her crush.

"no." He answered with a little annoyance setting into his tone. After all one could only say no so many times before it became tedious.

"What the hell are you, gay? You got a smoking hotty hanging of your arm and you say no. What the hell is wrong with you? If it was me ...." he continued on in this vain until a punch to the back of his head interrupted his tirade.

"Shut the hell up baka, don't talk to Sasuke-kun like that again or I'll give you a beating you won't soon forget." Screeched the pink haired girl on his right. Throughout the holes scene Sasuke just sat there silently wishing that the sensei would show up and save him from the madness that was his team.

Not long after the end of lunch bell wrong did the team sensei's start to arrive, usually just picking up their team and leaving off to some secluded part of the village. Finally the only team left was team seven. Both kiba and Sakura were more than a little annoyed at being the last team to be picked up and were more than happy to vocalize their annoyance. Sasuke had a bit more self control but even he was less than pleased at being the last team to be picked up. However soon the sound of foot steeps could be heard approaching the room and all three genin straitened hoping to make a good first impression on their new teacher. What steeped through the door shocked all three in to a stunned silence.

He had long silver hair that went down to his lower back and his bangers were done in such a way that that they framed his face on both sides. On each of his cheeks were three whisker like marks. He still had a bit of baby fat but over all his face was very angular and smooth. However the most notable sight was his almost glowing blue eyes, it wasn't even that they seemed to glow but the fact that they were slited like a cats.

From what they could see all he wore was a pair of standard black shinobi pants, with a pair of knee high black leather boots with silver buckles over his feet. Instead of a shirt he had two leather belts crossing his chest in an X and over top of all of that he wore a long black leather coat with silver palindromes' on his shoulders. And in his left hand was by far the largest sword any of them had ever seen, probably seven feet in length it was almost twice as tall as the man holding it.

However the thing that had them all rooted to their spot was the fact that their sensei could be no older than they were. It didn't make any sense. They had seen the other sensei's most of them had at least been in their late twenties. The boy in front of them couldn't be older than then thirteen.

"Team seven I presume." it wasn't a question. Not waiting for them to make any sight that they had heard him he continued. "Meet me up on the roof in five." And without further adue he turned around, his long coat flaring out behind him and walked out the door without giving his team another glace.

All three of the new genin just stared at the door their new sensei had just walked out.

"Ah, you guys just saw what i just saw too right? I mean he looked our age to you too right? Asked kiba very confused.

All sakura could do was nod her head. Sasuke on the other hand was trying to calm himself down. There was someone out there that was his age and was already so far beyond him. he couldn't help but to start comparing the silver haired buy to his brother, and although he was sure that Itachi would win in a fight between the two, after all Itachi was still an Uchiha and the only person who could kill an Uchiha was another Uchiha. Still his new sensei had to of been powerful to of become a jounin already and he was full prepared to do what he had to learn from him, even if he had to swallow his pride for a time then so be it. "Come on, he only gave us five minutes to get to the roof, and I for one would rather not be late." And with that he stood up and walked out the door, his two teammates not far behind him.

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He was leaning up against the railing when he first heard his new students approach up the stairs. In all honesty he was less than impressed with them, though it was admittedly still too early to form any opinions and more than likely he was just transferring his annoyance at having to do this onto them. So shaking his head to clear his thoughts he waited for them to arrive.

First was the young Uchiha. He may not have read all the way through his file but it was hardly necessary to understand the boy. Unfortunately he had never had the pleasure of serving with Itachi, but he had met the prodigal Uchiha on numerous occasions when he had been younger, he had even served as a sparring partner on a few occasions. Truthfully even now he still held some respect for the older boy, that's not to say he would not kill him if their paths ever crossed. He was still a missing-nin and no matter how much he may have respected him that would not stop him from doing his duty. But back to the boy standing in front of him, it was easy to guess that the boy was walking down the path of the 'avenger' so to speak. He already knew the boy was going to be a problem. Not only in the fact that his attitude was less than exemplary and he was most likely even less stable than himself, but simply because revenge was another one of those emotions that he still had trouble understanding. Kakashi had said it was one of those things that he couldn't really explain but something that one had to experience firsthand. The only thing he could think of doing to help the problem was to do the same thing he suspected the Hokage of doing to him, he would force the boy to interact with his peers and hope that he would connect to them on some level.

Next was his only female student. Again he had not gotten very far in her record but he could already tell that most of her knowledge lay in the realm of the academic and not the practical. Not that that was necessarily a bad thing but he could tell just by looking at her that she was pathetically weak in both physically and in her chakra reserves even for a kononichi. The first thing he had planned for her was too seriously up the girl's physical training. After that he perhaps he would recommend she get specialized training in either Genjutsu or medical jutsu.

Lastly was Kiba Inuzuka. Defiantly the team's tracker, but he certainly had the attitude to be a front line fighter. Unfortunately it was that same attitude that he was going to have to work on. The boy was confident to the point of being arrogant. And he had seen more ninja die because of their own arrogance than from enemy fire. He was also most likely very dependent on his clan jutsu just like most other ninja from prestigious clans, something he hoped to break him from. However of all his new genin he would most likely be the easiest 'fix' so to speak.

"All right now that we're all here I guess we should introduce ourselves. My name is Naruto Uzumaki but you will call me Naruto-sensei or just sensei. You don't need to know what I like or not I don't really have any hobbies, though I guess you might be able to count star gazing if you wanted to. As for dreams for the future ... I don't really have one nor do I feel I need one. Now you." he said pointing at Sasuke.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I don't really like anything and I dislike a lot of things. As for hobbies ... the only thing I can think of that falls under that category would be training. As for a dream for the future, it not so much a dream as an ambition, I'm going to kill a certain man and resurrect my clan to its former glory." He finished with a scowl as his thought turned to THAT man.

Without even giving him a second look he turned to his pink haired student. "You next." He said in a lazy drawl.

"uh right. I'm Sakura Haruno. I like Sasuke-Kun and uh reading. I hate loud idiot baka's" she shot a glare at her K9 like teammate. "As for hobbies uh ..." at this she sent a look at Sasuke and let out a little squeal. "And a dream for the future ..." again she looked to her brooding teammate and let out and even louder squeal.

Naruto wasn't sure just what do now. Never had he been around girls his own age and he wasn't quite sure if this was normal behaviour or not. Hoping it wasn't, because his sensitive ears wouldn't be able to take too much of that it was, he moved on to his last student.

"Right my turn. I'm Kiba Inuzuka and this here is my companion Akamaru. I like dogs, hot girls and meat. I dislike cats, ugly girls and vegetables. As for hobbies well training with Akamaru here so we can be the best. As for a dream for the future, I want to become clan head and make my clan even stronger than it already is." He finished by standing up and giving the rest of his team a thumbs up gesture.

"Right, well now that we know each other I can tell you about the next part of you genin test ..." that was as far as he got when he was interrupted by cries of indignation from the three genin sitting in front of him. Deciding that he was in no mood to listen to their complaining he let loose a small bit of killing intent to shut them up. "As I was saying. The next part is a kind of survival test I suppose. In any case meet me at training ground seven at six tomorrow morning and bring all you ninja equipment." And with that he shushine'd off leaving a dumbfound group of genin still standing on the roof of the academy.

XXXXXX

It was early the next morning when Naruto walked into the clearing that made up training ground seven. Looking around he noticed Sasuke leaning against a tree with sakura not far away sending said dark haired boy love long looks. However it wasn't until he noticed the snoring did he spot kiba. There at the foot of one of the trees fast asleep was the dog like boy and his small dog sleeping soundly. Shaking his head and with a small smile on his face he slowly walked over to the sleeping boy bent down and covered the boys nose and mouth so he was no longer able to breathe. It did not take long for his eyes to snap open and dart around wildly looking for the reason he was no longer able to breathe. "Let this be a lesson if you going to sleep during practice you had better be able to detect a threat in you sleep or next time you just might not wake up." He drawled with no real emotion in his voice. He then walked away from the still prone boy until he was able to see all three genin without having to move his eye. "Now normally I would test you on your team work with some kind of overcomplicated test of some sort, but luckily for you the Hokage has all but forbidden me from failing you and in so doing freeing me from the hell that I'm sure being your sensei is going to be. So, seeing as you've basically already guaranteed to become genin, were simply going to have a spare so I can see where your strengths and weaknesses are. This is technically a team exercise so feel free to work with each other and also if you plan on even laying one blow on me you better come at me with intent to kill. Now ... begin." As he finessed all three genin disappeared into the woods. "Well at least you all know how to hide properly." He said looking around the clearing pinpointing the location of all three genin. "Well it seems I need to motivate you all to come out of hiding. So how about this everyone who can't land one clean blow on me will be doing double training for the next week, yes that sounds fair doesn't it?" he asked no one in particular. Unsurprisingly almost immediately after finishing did both kiba and Akamaru come rushing out of the bushes in a dead charge. Not even changing his stance he just stood there waiting for the two missiles that were Akamaru and kiba to come to him and just before they were about to collide did Naruto simple jump over them landing softly behind both of them before spinning on his right leg and delivered a strong kick to kiba's side sending him flying into Akamaru which in turn sent both barrelling in to one of the many trees surrounding the clearing. "Rule number one: make sure you have a plan before you engage the enemy." He said over kiba's unconscious body. However his reprieve was short lived as a barrage of shuriken slammed into him, only to revel that all they had hit was a large log.

"That was much better Sasuke. If I had been a little slower you just might have hit me." Said the silver haired man standing behind Sasuke who had thought he had concealed himself in the tree to a point where their sensei would not have been able to of hit him. "But it was a bit to strait forward, you should have tried to of gotten me to move into a better position for either another trap or an ambush. But still for a fresh genin I guess it was O.K." he said as Sasuke registered that his position had been made and jumped down into the clearing. Naruto followed him and now both were just standing in the clearing staring each other down, well Sasuke was staring at Naruto, Naruto just had a board expression on his face. "Well now what? You have my undivided attention so why don't you show me just how strong the all might Uchiha are?" he had read all their files last night and had discovered that everyone's favourite Uchiha apparently had a very short fuse.

Sasuke fumed. The man was obviously making fun of his family. Well he'll show him not to underestimate an Uchiha again. with that though firmly in place he ran through a number of had hand seals ending on tora and yelled our "**Grand Fireball Technique!**" before inhaling a large breathe of air and then releasing a large ball of fire that sped directly towards Naruto who just stood there and let the fire hit him. Sasuke was more than a little surprised when he noticed his sensei made no move to avoid getting hit by his fireball. However when the smoke cleared and he noticed there was no charred corpse he got back into a defensive stance and began to look around the clearing for his opponent, Unfortunately it was too late when he finally looked down there were two hand coming out of the earth pulling him under. By the time his sensei was fully emerged from the ground Sasuke was now buried up to his neck in the ground. "Well that was rather impressive for a genin, but it's far too easy to anger you, I would suggest you work on that or it may just get you killed one of these days." And with that he walked away from the now fuming head of the last Uchiha.

"Now where did pinkie get to?" he asked himself looking around the forest before heading deeper into the woods.

Up in a tree not too far away hid said pinkie. "That was close." She whispered to herself. She had seen how he had taken care of both kiba and Sasuke and she knew that she stood no chance against him and that her best chance of making it out of this clearing relatively unharmed would be too hide until the time was up. Just then she heard a noise come from underneath her and when she looked down her heart stop. There was Sasuke, her Sasuke, but he didn't look like his usual cool self. He was covered in cuts and there were even a number of kunai sticking out of his back. "Sasuke-Kun!" she yelled in shock as she jumped down from her tree to tend to her Sasuke. However just as she reached him he fell to one knee coughed u a large amount of blood and then fell flat on his face. "Sasuke-kun, oh Sasuke-kun please be ok, please be ok ...." she kept repeating this over and over until she reached his now prone body. However when she reached him and turned him over all she could see was a large number of deep cuts in this torso all bleeding copious amounts of blood. It was then that he cracked one of his eyes open and feebly lifted his head so his mouth was very close to her ear. "Why, sakura? Why didn't you help us? Where were you?" the accusation in his voice was like a knife to her heart. Then just as he finished his head fell limp and his breathing stopped and for one brief moment the world fell silent before one single pain filled scream scattered the birds up in the trees and then sakura knew no more.

"Heh, maybe I over did it?" thought the silver haired man to himself up in a tree overlooking the pink haired girl down on the forest floor. "Oh well nothing I can do about it now anyway. Besides if she can't throw off a simple D-class Genjutsu that that's her own dam problem." And with that he jumped down out of the tree and picked up his pink haired subordinate and began to walk of towards the rest of the team.

XXXXXX

When kiba awoke it was quite a surprise to find himself tied to a post along with both Sasuke and Sakura. Then he noticed his silver haired sensei standing in front of them, his monster of a sword rested against his left shoulder. "Well I must say that was pathetic. Not only did none of you even come close to landing a hit on me, but even when I go out of my way to tell you to work together you still go off and do your own thing. Honestly was it because of my age? Did you think that because were the same age that we must be close to being the same power level? Is that it? Or did you just think so highly of your own power that you thought you could take on a jounin level ninja on your own? Because if either of those are what you think that you're going to be in for a rude awakening. Now, normally I would fail you on the spot and send your asses back to the academy for another year, but unfortunately I don't have that option. So instead were doubling you work out routine for the next week. That mean you will arrive her at five in the morning and you won't leave until seven that night, or if you pass out I guess I can let you go home, if I'm feeling charitable. Now get out of here and you better be here on time and you better be awake." He shot kiba a glare at the end before swinging his sword and cutting all their bindings at the same time. All the genin could do was sit there and look at the person they had no doubt would now be firmly secured in their nightmares for years to come walk away.

XXXXXX

He was lying on the roof of his apartment watching the sun set of in the west when he felt the familiar chakra signature of one of his 'friends'. "Hello sempi. Come to check in on me have you?" he asked.

"Well, more like to make sure that everyone on your team is still alive, but I guess I can make time in my hectic schedule to check up on you to. Speaking of which, how did things go? And seriously they are still all alive right?" he asked with a straight face taking a seat beside his fellow silver haired friend.

"If it makes you feel any better they are all still alive and in relatively good health, though I make no promises' about their health in the week to follow." He said as he watched the last of the suns light fade away and the first of the stars start to shine.

"Ha, yha I heard about what you got planed for them in the coming week and I can't say I envy them. Most anbu would balk at training at your level for a week; I doubt that a couple of fresh genin will last all week."

"Oh I agree, but it's a good way of showing the difference in our levels, I don't have age on them so I need them to understand that as of right now I'm still considerable stronger than them. They need to understand that I'm the one in charge and that it's in their best interest to do as I tell them." He said while mentally naming of constellations, as more and more stars began to shin in the night sky.

"That's a good plan, just make sure that you don't accidentally kill one off, I hear there's quite a lot of paperwork involved in accidental genin deaths." Kakashi chuckled at his own joke. Like most shinobi he had developed a rather dark sense of humour. "Anyway, now that I know you got through the day with what little sanity you already possessed I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me and the other jounin sensei's to grab a drink or two. And before you flat out refuse me remember that for immediate future the only company you have to look forward to is that of your genin squad." Kakashi shuddered at the thought of being surrounded by a bunch of green brats all the time, and he could only imagine what it was going to be like for his shorter friend.

Naruto thought about it, kakashi had a point, as uncomfortable as he felt around other anbu and jounin it was nowhere near as bad as trying to be around people his own age and it wouldn't hurt to at least try and be around people who in comparison to his earlier company made at least a bit of sense. "All right, I guess a few drink would not kill me, but I do have a busy morning so I can't stay out all night."

Kakashi was a little shocked, this had hardly been the first time he had tried to get the silver haired kid to come drinking with him but he had always flat out refused him in the past. Maybe he hadn't given the Hokage enough credit. If after just spending one day with a bunch of brats his own age had opened him up to the idea of at least mingling with some of the other people in the village, even if it was only because he felt more comfortable in comparison to doing things with the younger crowd than that was fine with him. "well then let's go, and don't worry too much it really is going to just be you me and maybe three or four others, hell the bar we go to is usually pretty empty in the first place."

"You don't have to baby me. Though I do appreciate your sentiments I assure you I'll be fine now let's go, unlike some people I could mention I would rather not be late." And with that he stood up dusted off his pants and jumped of the side of the building.

XXXXXX

Despite his insistences that kakashi did not need to baby him he was still glad that the bar was almost empty when they arrived. In fact the only people in the room were three people of sitting around one of the larger tables in the room, the head bands as well as the extra two seats lead him to believe that this was the group of other genin sensei kakashi was talking about, the bartender and two men sitting at the bar. Letting out a small sight of relief at the small number of people he would have to be around he let himself be lead by kakashi over to the table and took a seat between him and the only female at the table. Immediately it became painfully obvious that kakashi had not told the others that he was coming, not that he could blame him, he had turned him down so many times before that he obviously had felt that today would have been no different. However it was and now he had three strangers giving him funny looks. Unfortunately only kakashi had ever served in anbu so he was unfamiliar with the other people at the table.

Sensing his friends growing unease and not wanting to ruin what was probable his first night out in many years kakashi decided it was going to be up to him to break the ice. "Well then, let me make the introductions. Naruto this is Maito guy, but you can just call him guy and to his left is the thirds son Asuma Sarutobi and the lovely lady to your left is Kurenai Yuhi. Everyone this is Naruto, we served in anbu together for a while and now he's the sensei for team seven." The silence was almost defining. He had hoped that the others would try and start up a conversation, something simple to help ease the boy out of his shell, unfortunately hi introduction had the opposite effect and all the others were able to do was stare at the silver haired kid. Thankfully the silence was broken when the bar tender came over to take their orders. Much to the surprise of everyone else Naruto ordered the same sake that kakashi had. Unfortunately just before he was about to take his first sip a hand shot out across the table and stopped him. "Oh woe is me; I cannot stand to watch such an unyouthful act and stand back and do nothing. Truly someone who is youthful enough to make anbu at such an age must truly of embraced their spring time of youth and to now to see someone dull that youthfulness with such unyouthful things as alcohol dampens my own fires of youth." Blurted out guy, still keeping an iron grip on Naruto's arm.

It was all Naruto could do to not cut the man's hand of and run screaming from the room. He had honestly never heard someone yelling about youthfulness and the spring time of youth and all he really wanted to do was to get away from the obviously insane man as fast as he could.

Thankfully kakashi was there to run interception. "Let him go guy, he's still new to our little group and we don't want to scare him of after the first night, besides, there's nothing unyouthful about it, after all Naruto here can't get drunk isn't that right Naruto?" it wasn't easy to get the boy to say much and kakashi knew before even coming her that he was going to have to be the one leading the conversation.

Naruto sent one last apprehensive look to the odd man dressed in green spandex before shaking his head and turning to look at Asuma and Kurani. "You are correct. The kyuubi filters all impurities in my blood, this also includes alcohol." He noticed that everyone around the table flinched when he said the name of the beast he had sealed inside of him. Not that it bothered him any, it had been there almost from birth and most likely if it were to be somehow removed now it would feel like he was losing a part of himself.

Now he remembered why Naruto never came drinking with him, it wasn't just that he was uncomfortable around people it was also the fact that people were uncomfortable around him. well then it looks like we found the person whose job it is to make sure we all make it home in one peace at the end of the night." Kakashi joked before throwing back a saucer of sake.

The night went on like that, most of the time Naruto would stay quiet and sip his sake, though occasionally kakashi would direct the conversation over to him, he would give a few answers and slowly drift away from the center of the conversation until he was able to safely continue to sip at his sake.

"Well that wasn't a complete bust but it could have gone better. By the way I'm sorry for not warning you about guy earlier, he ... takes a bit of getting use to." Kakashi apologised.

"That's all right. Although I would not say I 'enjoyed' myself, it really wasn't as bad as I though it was going to be. And I guess that over time some of the ... uneasiness I felt round them would dissipate, and hopefully visa versa." Said the silver haired kid as he walked beside his much taller friend.

"Am I to take it that you'll be joining me the next time we get together for drinks?" kakashi asked unable to hide the hope in his voice.

"I can't make any promises but I can see the benefit of associating with my fellow senseis. If that means accompanying you for drinks then so be it." he answered

XXXXXX

A/N: well there's chapter two. Got to see a bit more of Naruto's character as well as how he interacts with others. And as you can see he does have emotions, kind of, he just doesn't have the emotional range that a normal person might. Also introduced his genin team, mostly I picked kiba because he reminds me the most of cannon Naruto and I need that kind of personality on the team, though I will admit I was tempted to use shino for a while there but whatever. also I'm sure I got the spelling of some of these names wrong, but don't worry about it I'm working on it and you should be able to guess who I'm talking about anyway. Well the that's it for this chapter next one will probably be the wave arch, thinks aren't going to change to much until after the chunin exams that's when everything's going to go pear shaped.

Anyways till next time read and review.


	3. Chapter 3

BURN

It was actually rather impressive. Sure even after a week of training at this level they still all passed out before the day was over, but the fact that they were now able to make it almost three quarters of the day through before finally giving out where as when they had first started they had been lucky to of made it to lunch was a huge improvement. Even sakura was now able to keep up better with her two teammates. Of course this whole exercise routine was focused solely on improving the physical conditioning, but it was a start and with their improvement with their endurance he would be able to start teaching them proper Tijutsu instead of the pathetic excuse of a fighting style they taught in the academy. However that was neither here nor there and right now he had to make sure his students made it back to their respective homes safely and seeing as how none of them were even awake at, it seemed that it was up to him to get them there. So making a single hand seal he created three shadow clones and set them about getting his students home. After the three copies of himself were out of view he turned his long silver hair flowing in the afternoon breeze he walked back into the training area up to the three posts that were firmly planted in the ground, which was also where he had planted his sword at the beginning of the day. Grabbing the foot long handle in one hand he swiftly pulled it out and got into a one handed fighting stance. Jumping up he preformed wide sweeping slash mid air before landing gracefully on one of the stumps back in his starting stance. Again he jumps into the air this time doing a number of stabbing moves before landing on the far left stump. Turning to his right he looks out over the training grounds before closing his eyes, bringing his sword up so that he has it in a two handed stance and that the blade was parallel with his eye. Taking in a deep breath his stood there feeling the world around him for almost a minute. Then in less than a second his eyes snapped open and he ran along the stumps, still keeping his sword level with his eyes, jumped off the last one, preformed a flip while moving his sword above his head and bringing it down in a two handed over head slash that would of bisected kakashi in half if not for the amount of control Naruto had over his blade.

"You know, most people just say hi when greeting someone." Kakashi deadpanned not even a little ruffled by the fact that he had been nearly cut in two.

"And when have I ever been most people?" asked Naruto with a small smile on his face.

"Touché" said kakashi with his patented eye smile.

"So?" asked Naruto as he sealed his sword away on a seal on his forearm.

"'So' what?" asked kakashi in return.

Naruto just groaned. "I know you've been watching our little training sessions; I assumed you have some comment to make about it or else you would of waited till I was relaxing to bother me, like usual."

"Ah, yes I am getting rather predictable in my old age aren't I? But seeing as how you've figured out my dastardly plan I suppose that I might as well." He said, eye smile never leaving his face.

"Well then? Was I being too hard on them? I'll admit I'm not entirely sure how to teach, let alone teach genin. But they're not dead so no harm no foul; besides I have a relatively good idea of where their limits are now so I can tone it down a bit now." Explained the long silver haired jounin.

"Maa, maa you did fine, besides most jounin sensei usually take it too easy on their pupils in my opinion anyway." He said waving his hand beside his face in a dismissive manner. "But actually I just came by to invite you out again, same place as last time, same people too. And you know if you really want to get some advice about teaching they would be the people to ask."

All he could do was sighing, he knew agreeing to get out more was a bad idea, but kakashi did make a good point, and he really did want to get some pointers about reaching from people who had some experience. "Fine, but I'm not going for the company, this is merely an educational experience for me."

Kakashi just laughed a little. "Sure, sure whatever you say. I'll drop by latter to pick you up ..."

"If you're going to be late than I'll just leave without you." said Naruto.

"Right, right I'll make it a point to be on time than."

"Fine, I'll see you then. Now If you'll excuse me I still have my own training to do." And with that Naruto turned his back walked a few steps back into the training grounds and got back into his starting stance.

"Right I'll see you later." And with that kakashi shushine'd off, he had seen the boy train and had no desire to join the terrain in being chopped into small little pieces.

XXXXXX

Thankfully kakashi had kept his word and been only five minutes late to meet up with his fellow silver headed shinobi. They had exchanged greeting and set off for the local ninja bar. Just like last time there were already three other people sitting around one of the larger tables in the room and just as before there were two seats empty. One next to the man in green the other beside the only kononichi. Before kakashi was even able to blink Naruto was seated in the seat beside the red eyed woman leaving him to sit beside guy (oh joy). A quick exchange of pleasantry's was exchanged and soon the conversation follow the same form as the last one, Naruto sitting quietly sipping his sake, kakashi tying to get him to participate and the others fluctuating between trying to include their younger peer and being unnerved by some of the things he says. Deciding that this little cycle had gone on long enough kakashi decided that it was time to bring up a topic he was sure would at least get a few sentences out of his younger friend.

"Anyway, as amusing as it is to talk about the springtime of youth guy, I'm actually more interested in hearing about your genin teams. I was just talking with Naruto here about it earlier isn't that right Naruto?" kakashi grinned under his mask, let's see him get out of this with just a sentence or two.

Naruto just sighed, before looking back to the other jounin sensei's, kakashi being the only one present who was not one. "Yes, kakashi-sempi here had been watching my team's latest training regime. Unfortunately I don't know much about being a genin so I'm not entirely sure how hard I should be pushing them. When I asked sempi here if he thought if I was pushing them to hard he told be no, but I would much prefer the opinions of people who have experience in this field as I know sempi has never trained a genin team."

Most everyone at the table just gave him a slack jawed look. For the three other genin sensei's that had easily been the most any of them had ever heard from the young silver haired boy. Kakashi was surprised because he knew for a fact that that had been the most Naruto had ever said to a group of what were essentially strangers.

Guy was the first to recover. "Ah, such important this as fanning the flames of youth in our students, truly is a topic worthy of discussion. As for your question of being too hard on your genin, I'll tell you that that is imposable. How are we to know where our limits are if we're not pushed hard enough to find them, and it only through sweet, tears and blood that we can improve ourselves, and it's our jobs to show our youthful genin how to fan their own flames so that they may enjoy their springtime of youth." Gut finished with his good guy pose which nearly blinded Naruto.

After getting over the shock of guys blinding teeth Naruto just nodded his head. "Although I'm not sure what you said exactly I did catch the bit about pushing them to their limits and am slightly relieved that at least one person is pushing their students hard as well." Said Naruto well nodding his head.

"Well pushing your students is all well and good; you don't want to push them to hard, their still young, there's no reason to push them to grow up too fast. Besides it takes time to find where each of your student's skills lay and even longer for them to decide where they want to specialize. Until they know what they want to study there's only so much you can do for them." Said Kurani with a slight scowl on her face.

Naruto wasn't sure how to respond to that. Well he knew how he would of normally responded, something about a childhood being unnecessary and having gotten along just fine without one. But he knew that this was one of the things that would make the others uncomfortable around him, ending the conversation and he wouldn't be able to learn anything more about something he was woefully uninformed about.

"You're just being naive kurani, having a childhood is all well and good but were teaching them how to be solders and there's no room for kid on the battlefield." Thankfully kakashi apparently had the same ideas as him and was able to express his opinion much more tactfully than himself.

"I'm going to have to agree with the others on this. Although I do think that they should be eased into this kind of a life style this really is the time that they should start growing up, especially if they plan on going on anything higher than a D-rank mission." Added asuma.

Kurani just huffed and took a long sip of her drink before settling into her chair and glaring at the large hairy ape sitting beside her.

Thankfully the rest of the night went by smoothly and soon Naruto was helping his inebriated friend back to his apartment, silently cursing the kyuubi for making him immune to alcohol and there for have to help everyone home.

XXXXXX

It was six the next morning when three very sore genin stumbled into what they had come to dub the privet corner of hell. Just as before their sense was already waiting there for them.

"Well congratulations, you made it through a week of training that would have given most jounin a tough time, and although you never finished a full day's workout you did make noticeable progress. Today will start taking missions but first a light warm up of ten laps around the clearing followed by 50 push-ups and sit-ups."

All three genin had a look of sock on their faces. After a week of training from hell they were getting off so light.

"Well get to it, unless you want to go back to our previous schedule." Said the silver haired boy from his spot in the center of the training grounds.

That got them moving, and before he could even blink the three genin were already starting on their laps.

Compared to their earlier training this was almost too easy, even sakura easily the weakest member of their team physically finished the training without any problem.

"well now that we have that out of the way we should get a move on, from what I hear all the good missions usually get picked-up rather quickly." And with that he started walking back toward the center of the village.

XXXXXX

"Ah Naruto-kun, I was wondering when I was going to see. I assume you're here for a mission then?" greeted the third Hokage.

"Hai I think my team is ready to start taking missions now." Responded Naruto.

"Well then let's just see what we have." said the third as he rummaged through a pile of scrolls. "Ah yes, I almost forgot about this one, though I'm not sure, this isn't usually something I would send genin on, especially for their first mission. But then again he has been asking that I send you down to see him, and I imagine you'll be able to keep you genin out of trouble." Said the Hokage almost to himself.

Naruto had a sinking feeling in his gut. There was only a few people who would petition the Hokage to come see him, and if it was who he thought it was than this was going to be a very unpleasant day.

Both Sasuke and Kiba's thoughts were on the fact that they were being asked to complete a mission that none of the other genin teams would be able to do, maybe even a C-rank one. Sakuras was more along the line of trying to figure out just what their mission would entail.

"I would really rather prefer never having to see the waste of genetic material again if it was at all possible, but if you order it I will accept whatever mission you ask." Said the blond in annoyance.

"I understand, I too find him to by rather ... disturbing at times. But he has the ear of the council and he's not going anywhere anytime soon." After that he sat up a bit straighter in his chair. "Jounin Naruto Uzumaki, you and your team are to deliver a number of important documents to the research and development laboratories, and specifically to the head of the science department Hojo." Said the Hokage his authoritative voice.

"Yes sir." And with that he grabbed the scroll that contained the files that they were to deliver. He then turned to his team "come on its a bit of a walk to the entrance, I'll fill you in on the way." And with that he walked out the door down the stairs and out the front door into the morning light, his genin not far behind.

"Uh sensei? Who's this Hojo person? I've never heard of him before. Actually I've never even heard of the research and development department before either." Asked sakura. And although neither Sasuke nor kiba voiced it they too were both curios about their first mission.

"Not surprising. Both Hojo and his department are not exactly something one would want to make public knowledge. That being said I would not recommend repeating what you may hear or see down there to your friends, well it's not illegal per say, it's something most people would simply be happier off not knowing about."

"What do you mean, what so bad about the place?" Asked Kiba.

"You'll see when we get there. That being said there are a few ground rules you would be wise to follow. One, don't touch anything, and I do mean anything." He gave a glance at kiba when he said that. "Two don't talk to anyone." Here he looked at sakura. "Lastly if anyone down there asks you to either sign something or agree to something run." Here he looked to Sasuke knowing how much Hojo would enjoy being able to work with the sharingan. "Other than that just try to keep your head down and save your questions until later. Now form up were there."

Sakura looked up and noticed they had stopped in front of what appeared to be an old apartment complex. However before she was able to voice her scepticism her sensei opened up the door and walked through forcing the others to follow or be left behind. When she entered it looked exactly like what she thought it would, old dusty and obviously in disuse. However their sensei paid this no mind as he walked up to the elevator and pushed the call button. Soon the elevator arrived and all four people steeped inside. Naruto waited for the doors to close before he pushed a number of buttons. By now sakura figured out that the base was hidden and this was just a facade to hide the entrance.

They had been riding the elevator for a few minutes hitting each floor in the order of the buttons that were pressed. Finally they reached the last floor and after the door shut the elevator began to descend past the main floor, past the basement until, after almost two minutes of descending, the elevator stopped and the doors opened to a sterile whit reception room.

"Welcome Uzumaki-san. Professor Hojo is expecting you, he's currently in exam room 7, I assume you don't need a guide?" asked the receptionist.

"No, I'll be fine." and without further adue he lead his genin through the only other door in the room into a long corridor. He lead them down, past a number of offices, some empty some not, until they reached the end of the corridor. Here he stopped in front of two large swinging doors and turned to his genin.

"Remember, don't touch anything." And with that last warning he pushed open the doors and led his team into what appeared to be a giant warehouse. However as they passed one of the glass containers sakura let out a scream. This of course caught the two boy's attention causing them to look in to the glass case and jump back in fright. There inside was ... well none of the genin were entirely sure what it was though it did look slightly humanoid. Only the skill looked like it was rotting, it had an extra arm sticking out of its back and its legs seemed to be put on backwards. "Wh..Wha.. What the hell is that thing?" stuttered Sasuke.

"That is the reason for rule number three, actually that is the reason for all of the rules I told you about earlier. It's also what I was talking about when i told you that most people were happier simple not knowing about this place, now come on, the exam rooms are at the other end of the storehouse, and there are much more depraved things in here than that, like the good professor for example.

The closest thing kiba could link what he was seeing to was a zoo from hell. There were some things that were obviously human at one point, though he could hardly call them that now. Then there were what appeared to be wiled animals mutated in the same way as the humans they had passed, them there were things he couldn't even cartelize. By the time they had exited the main storehouse and entered the hallway that lead to the exam rooms all three genin had become very quiet and had their eyes planted firmly on the floor. Unfortunately now that they were making their way past the exam rooms it was now the sound that assaulted their ears. Sometimes it was just a low moan and the quiet muttering of people coming from one room, other times it was a loud agonizing scream that chilled the blood of the genin. In one of the room what could only be described as a pitiful crying sound followed by the occasional cries for help coming from what sounded like a woman were heard. When sakura went to open the door she found her sensei standing in front of it blocking her path.

"When I said don't touch anything I meant don't touch ANYTHING."

"But sensei, someone might be hurt. Shouldn't we at least see if there's something we can do to help?" asked sakura.

"I have no doubt that whoever is behind that door would very much appreciate our help. But that's not our job, and down here shinobi are not the top of the food chain and the curious ones have a way of disappearing if you catch my meaning." He said lifting one of his eyebrows to try and punctuate his point. "Now let's go, were almost there."

The rest of the walk was mercifully silent and soon they were standing in front of a large double door with a large number 7 printed on it. "Come on let's get this over with."

With one strong push of the doors swung open and offered the young genin their first look at the mad scientist. He was a rather short man, something not helped by his slight hunch. He had black greasy hair tied back in a ponytail with long strand hanging down over his face and a pair of small round glasses over his dark beady eyes. "Ah, Uzumaki-san so wonderful to see you again. And what's this? Did you bring me a present? Why it's not even my birthday." Greeted the obviously insane man as he sent a glare at the three genin now half hiding behind their sensei.

"Hardly. I was told to deliver these to you." he said as he held out the scroll congaing whatever files Hojo had requested from the Hokage. "And I can assure you that the only reason I'm here at all was because the third said you've 'requested' my presence. Now I'm in no mood for your games, so say what you need to say and let's not drag out this little meeting any longer than it has to be."

"Yes, yes. Always strait to the point aren't we? Why I remember when you were just a little boy always running around trying to get people's attention. And then when you finally got their attention you would always demand they stop treating you like a kid. Oh those were the days and you hardly came here to here to listen to me ramble on. Now where did I put that thing?" he asked himself. "Ah, yes now I remember. You know sometimes I'm actually frightened by my own intelligence. Now let's see that sword of yours, come now we haven't got all day."

Rather hesitantly Naruto brought his thumb up to his mouth, bit down just hard enough to draw some blood and swiped it across a seal on his forearm. In a puff of smoke Masamune in all its seven foot glory was in Naruto's hand, the tip of the blade only inches away from Hojo's neck.

"Ah, Masamune, Truly one of the most magnificent swords ever to be forged. Just seeing it again takes me back. I can still remember the first day you saw it. It sticks out in my mind because it was the only time I've ever seen you with a look of true wonder on your face. Now if I remember correctly, not too long ago you were complaining about the time it took you to unseal it right? Well I've had my men down in our seal division working on this for some time now, and if I do say so they really have outdone themselves this time." And with that he turned around and walked over to one of the many workbenches that dotted the room. Once there he rummaged around until finding what he was looking for and returned with what looked like the slandered ANBU katana sheath. "Yes, yes. I know what you're thinking, but just trust me on this and try it out."

All Naruto could do was raise a thin silver eyebrow in suspicion, but not detecting anything other than thinly veiled excitement from the mad doctor strapped the sheath to his hip and slide Masamune into it. Surprisingly it fit perfectly even though the sheath was easily more than three feet to short to house Masamune.

"hehehehe, I know, amazing isn't it. A completely new type of storage seal, I myself am not even entirely sure how it works, something about keeping the door to a pocket dimension permanently open."

All Naruto could do was look down at his now sheathed sword. "Well, at least this wasn't a complete waste of time. Now if there's nothing more we should be going, I'm sure that there's some experiment that requires your attention and I would hate to deprive you of your fun." He said with barley held contempt.

"Fine, fine, off you go then, though you're more than welcome to drop by anytime you want, you know how I do enjoy our little ... verbal debates." Said Hojo already turning his back to the group.

XXXXXX

"Sensei, earlier you said we should save our questions until later, well what the hell were those things down there? Who exactly is that Hojo guy? And what the hell was he talking about?" blurted out Kiba as they were exactly the warehouse the hid the hidden facility they had just exited, and none to soon in the genin's opinion.

"Those were some of Hojo's experiments, he specialises in genetics. As for who he is exactly, that's easy. He's a state sponsored madman, and the only reason he's not killed on the spot for what he does down there is because he has over the years provided Konaha with a number of innovations that have given out shinobi an edge over the compensation. But make no mistake the man is completely insane, lacking even the most basic sense of morality and not someone you want to notice you." here he gave his genin a stern glare in an attempt to drive home his point.

"All right, all right I get it. Hojo bad, distance good. But what about what he was talking about, it sounded like he's known you for a very long time. So what's the story?" asked Kiba with both Sasuke and sakura listening very closely

"The story is very simple; up until I was seven I spent most of my time down there."

"Wait, you're telling me that you actually grew up down there?" asked kiba in shock. He had only been down there for less than an hour and he could unequivocally say if he never went down there again it would be too soon. Hell he was sure that he would be having nightmares about that place for weeks to come.

"Yes. I suppose you could say that."

"But what about your parents, I mean what kind of people would actually let their son grow up in a place like that?" said sakura still in shock about the things she had seen and heard in that place. Then she realised what she had said and she clasped her hands over her mouth wishing she could take back what she had said.

"Again a simple answer, both my parents died when I was born so I can't really say what kind of people they were or if they would of objected to my living arrangements."

Now sakura really felt like an ass. "I'm sorry sensei, I didn't know." She said with her head hung down in shame and embarrassment.

"It's ok. I really don't care one way or another."

"You mean you don't care that your parents are dead?" asked a shocked Kiba. To him family was the most important thing in the world, and he simply couldn't imagine not caring if any of them died.

"As I said they died when I was born, it's rather hard to miss something that was never there, and pointless. Now come on we still have a good few hours of sun left, and you all still have a long way to go in your training."

XXXXXX

"Interesting day?" asked kakashi.

"You could say that sempi." answered Naruto not taking his eyes of the starry night sky. He may not have shown it on the outside but he always felt uneasy after visiting Hojo and the labs.

"Yha, I heard. Got to say you sure know how to show your genin a good time. I still remember my first time down there, still have nightmares about what I saw." He said, a shiver running down his spine. "I also heard you told your cute little genin about some of your past?" it was more of a statement than a question.

"Nothing much, but they asked and after what Hojo said down there I doubted that they would of excepted silence as answer, it was just easer to answer their questions than deal with them trying to find answers on their own."

"Well I have to agree with you there, especially seeing as how the only place they would find those answers is with Hojo and I think the less contact they have with that madman the better." Said kakashi as he took a seat near Naruto and turned his gave up at the stars. "in any case I imagine that after that last mission they might be more appreciative of having to do normal D-rank missions."

"Perhaps, though I wonder who will be the first to break under the boredom and ask for a higher level mission."

"my moneys on the Inuzuka, he doesn't have the temper to except pulling weeds as actual ninja work."

"Perhaps, though the same could be said for Sasuke. In the end it's not really important though, there already almost ready for simple C-ranks, just a few week of polishing their skills and they'll be ready."

"Well you know them best so if you say so, besides I doubt that there's much out there that you wouldn't be able to handle anyway." Said kakashi flippantly.

"True enough, though I would rather not have to worry about having to protect three green genin at the same time."

"Maa, maa you worry too much, besides that still weeks away, just make sure to train them up a bit before taking them outside of the village and they'll do fine."

"Perhaps."

XXXXXX

True to kakashi's prediction it was Kiba who broke down first; though it was obvious Sasuke was in complete agreement with him.

"no no no and no again. I refuse to chase down that dam cat again. I'm not training twelve hours a day, every day a week just to chase dome some stupid cat, or pull some old prunes weeds. I can speak for the rest of my team when I say we all want a better mission." Kiba blurted out when the Hokage offered them the mission to chase down tora the cat again.

"Oh, is that so?" asked the Hokage in amusement. "Well, is it true, do you all think the same way?" he asked the other genin standing in front of him.

Sasuke was the first to agree with his short-tempered teammate. "Hai Hokage-sama, although I think the dobe could have phrased his request more eloquently, I agree we are ready for more difficult missions."

"See I told you they ... hey what did you just call me?" shouted Kiba only just realizing he had been insulted.

The Hokage just laughed at their antics before setting his gaze on the kononichi of the team. "And you, do you think you're ready for a harder mission?"

"Ah, well. I think ... that is we still have a long way to go but I think we're ready." She answered somewhat nervously having never been addressed by the Hokage directly before.

"Well it's good that you're all so confident in your skills. Now Naruto what do you think, are they ready for a C-rank mission?" he asked moving his eyes to the last member of team seven.

"Hai Hokage-sama I think they're ready for a low level C-class mission, if you have on available that is." He answered honestly. They were hardly perfect and their team work still needed some work but the chances of running into anything more threatening than a few drunken bandits on a low level C-class mission were almost nonexistent.

"Well then you're in luck. We just so happen to have a simple escort mission to the land of waves that I think you all just might be able to handle. Iruka would you send in the client?" asked the kage.

"Yes sir, right away." Quickly he rose from his chair and hurried out the door. Unfortunately the person to enter was not the pleasant chunin.

"What's the meaning of this? I come here and pay good money for protection and what do I get a bunch of snot nosed brats? Hell there not even old enough to drink, how are they suppose to protect me?" yelled out the obviously drunk man indignantly.

it was only because Naruto had a firm hand on each of his male students shoulders that the drunk got away with saying those things unharmed. "I assure you that my three students will be more than enough protection against any bandits we may encounter on our way to wave. And despite my age I assure you I am one of the village's elite jounin and if anything unexpected does come up I'll be more than enough to take care of it." reassured Naruto.

"You, an elite? Come on kid who do you think you're kidding here you can't be older than thirteen, so stop pretending to be ..." he was cut off from his rant when he found himself face to face with the tip of a seven foot sword levelled at his eye. "uh never mind."

"That's what I thought, now will meet you at the west gate tomorrow at 0700." He then turned to his genin. "Remember to pack for at least three weeks, dismissed."

"Hai sensei." They all said in unison before hurrying off to pack for their first real ninja mission.

XXXXXX

A/N: I had actually intended to do the entire wave arc in this chapter but the thing with Hojo just kept getting longer and longer and well what are you going to do. Any ways, wave arc will be the next chapter and you know what that means ... that's right it's the fight of the ridiculously oversized swords; I can't wait to write it's going to be so much fun its actually one of the scenes that made me want to write this in the first place. Anyways that's all for now an please review its like fucking catnip for authors (they also make me write faster (wink wink nudge nudge))


	4. Chapter 4

BURN

It was early the next morning when the party of five set of for the land of waves. "Kiba, you take point. Sasuke, sakura take flanking positions, I'll guard the rear." Called out Naruto as the village walls disappeared in the distance.

"Hai sensei." Was the only reply, though he could hear some animosity in Sauske's voice. 'Probably about being passed over for taking point.' He thought to himself. However soon thoughts of his student's attitude problems faded into the background and he brought his focus back to the mission. Unfortunately his thoughts were soon interrupted.

"Tazuna-san do they have ninja in wave too?" asked sakura.

Naruto already knew the answer to this question of course but the look that briefly flashed across the old bridge builders face made him wonder. However with no solid proof he simply pushed his suspicions of to one side until he was able to find out more about the situation in wave.

"Ah, no no. There aren't any ninja in wave." Was his simplistic answer.

"Wave is a rather small country surrounded by the sea. Because of their natural defences no one thought to build a hidden village." Clarified Naruto, all the while giving the bridge builder a suspicious look.

"Oh, well what about other countries? Weren't there any closer villages to go to?" leave it to Sakura to dig for the truth.

"Ah, well it's just I heard how super awesome leaf ninja were so I decided to go to you guys instead." Naruto noted that their client was starting too sweet rather profusely. He had already decided that their client had lied to them about just what this mission entailed but with nothing solid he was forced to continue on.

XXXXXX

They had been walking for almost four hours now when he first spotted it. There in the middle of the road was a poorly constructed Genjutsu. Honestly it hadn't rained in weeks and they thought that that could fool any trained ninja. Unfortunately when he looked to his genin they seemingly had not noticed as they had walked by. Sighing to himself and making a mental note to up their training in detecting Genjutsu he slowed his pace so that when he had paced the puddle his team were already a few feet in front of him. 'Well sempi always said that life is the best teacher of them all, and they should start getting some experience now rather than when I'm not there to bail them out.' And with that thought he let himself be caught in the chains of the demon brothers and 'torn to bits'.

"Sensei!" all three genin screamed at once.

"hehe, one down." Said the taller of the two brothers.

"Four more to go." Whispered the shorter one from behind Kiba. Who then brought up his clawed hand in an attempt to ensnare him in the deadly chain that had just ended the like of their odd, but just as Kiba was about to go the big kennel in the sky Sauske's shuriken caught the chain and pined it to one of the many tree's around the road.

Surprise as they were that some gaki was able to pin them to a tree that they didn't even notice said gaki land on their outstretched arms in-between them and deliver two mule kicks to the side of their heads.

"Enough playing around brother, you get the old man; I'll deal with this little annoyance." And with that the chain connecting the two to the tree fell to the ground and both ran around Sasuke, one headed toward Sakura who had taken up a defensive position in front of Tazuna while the other ignored Sasuke and headed straight toward Kiba.

However before either of them could make it to within a foot of their targets a strong wind kicked up and then in the span of less than a fraction of a second both demon brothers were down on the ground, their head a few feet from their bodies.

"Sensei, your alive?!" yelled out Sakura.

"It would take more than just a few chunin to kill me. That being said you did good work protecting the client Sakura, you too Sasuke I can already see that your aim is improving." Sakura beamed at the praise her normally silent sensei had given her, even Sasuke showed that he was proud to of gotten praise from someone, who despite his earlier envy at the man's power, had come to respect. However the third genin on team seven was still looking down at the ground deep in thought.

'I froze. After all my talk and all the training sensei has given me and I still froze.' A sharp pain in his hand brought him out of his thoughts and back to reality. Looking down it was Akamaru who had firmly planted his teeth in his owner's hand. "Ow, dam it Akamaru what the hell?" with his sudden outburst the small dog released kiba's hand before falling back down to the ground and then proceeded to start barking and yipping at him. "Dam it your right, next time I'll show them just what we can do buddy I promise were never going to run from a fight like that again." Akamaru just yipped in agreement before jumping up and taking his usual position on kiba's head.

"Well were all glad that you have gotten you confidents back kiba there are more pressing matters to attend to." With that he quickly turned his head and shot Tazuna a very cold glare. "Would you be so kind as to tell my why you felt it necessary to lie to us Tazuna-san."

"I, uh don't know what you're ..." however before he could finish his sentence he found that the point of a very long sword was hanging precariously close to his thought. "Uh what I meant to say was, that, well ... alright alright, you caught me but I can explain really I can. You see wave is super poor right now, even our dymio is flat broke and the only hope our village has is the bridge I'm building. Unfortunately the man responsible for wave's current predicament doesn't want me to finish, he controls all the shipping lanes and if I can finish my bridge than his monopoly will be broken."

Naruto just nodded his head at the end. "If I may ask, just who has placed a price on your head?"

"You've probably heard of him, Gato of Gato shipping." He said in a quiet voice

"Gato, as in the Gato one of the wealthiest men on the continent?" 'Well that certainly changed things' he thought to himself. Politics and economic matters may not have been his forte but even he had heard of Gato. Shipping tycoon, one of the wealthiest men in the world and that was the biggest problem, with resources like that hiring jounin level nin would be nothing to him.

"Yes that Gato. Almost a year ago he came to our small country and started to take over, now were super poor and it was all we could do to save up for a C-rank mission." He said with his head hung low.

Naruto just gave him one of his cool stares. "Be that as it may this mission has exceeded our agreed upon contract. I would be well within my rights to end this mission now and to leave you to your fate."

If it was possible Tazuna's face became even paler, then suddenly he regained his composure. "It's alright I understand. I'll just go on on my own, don't worry about me I'm sure my death will be quick." The three genin were starting to give Tazuna an odd look. "But don't worry about me, it's my poor daughter that I'm worried about, her poor heart can only take so much pain and I hope that my death won't push her over the edge of despair and cause her to take her own life." Now all three genin were looking with pity in their eyes. "And my poor grandson having to go through life with no mother or any other family will surly fall into a life of crime probable ending with him dying covered in his own blood face down in a ditch somewhere. But your right, it's not your problem; I'll understand if you leave me here to my fate." He finished with a melodramatic sigh.

All three genin were looking overly uncomfortable now, not sure whether to feel sorry for the old man or to congratulate him on one of the best acting performances they had ever seen. "However, I'll leave the decision up to the rest of my team." Said Naruto giving a calculation look at the old man finding that even he had to admit that that was by far the best attempt to gain pity he had ever seen.

"Hell yha where going to keep going. I may of froze last time but now that I have a second chance there's no way I'm going to give it up!" yelled out Kiba followed but a loud bark from Akamaru.

"As much as it pains me to agree with the dobe I think we should keep going as well" said Sasuke poignantly ignoring the dirty look Kiba was sending his way.

Not wanting to be the only one to back out now Sakura quickly agreed to keep going.

"Very well then, however I want you to keep in mind that our next opponent will most likely be jounin level so I expect you to do exactly what I tell you to when the time comes. Now let's keep going we still have a few hours of traveling before we reach the boarder." And without another word he turned his back and started walking down the road in the direction they had originally be traveling before their unexpected pit stop.

XXXXXX

"Wow look at the size of it." said Kiba in awe.

They had been crossing the channel that separated wave from the rest of the main land when out of the mist appeared the largest bridge team seven had ever seen; even Naruto who had been around the word and seen many of its marvels was impressed by the sheer size of it.

"Quiet, do you want Gato's men to hear you." whispered the man who was fairing them across.

"Sorry, sorry" whispered Kiba in an admonished voice.

Thankfully the rest of the trip went off without a hitch and soon team seven and Tazuna were safely in the land of waves.

"Tazuna-san is it usually this foggy around here?" asked Sakura.

"It's not that uncommon this close to the sea, though I will admit its super foggy today." Replied the older man.

Sakura just nodded her head and kept her eyes on the road in front of them hoping that they wouldn't run into any trouble. Unfortunately just as she had assured herself that they would be able to make it to Tazuna's house without incident Kiba let out a rather loud war cry and fired off one of his kunai. When the group of ninja went to inspect what kiba had seen all that was there was on small snow rabbit with a kunai planted only an inch from its head.

"Kiba you idiot, look at what you almost did!" yelled Sakura before knocking him to the ground with a strong hit to the top of his head. However before she could get in any more hits she heard Naruto-sensei yell out to get down. Luckily with Kiba already down it was a simple matter for her to follow.

"hehehe what do we have here a bunch of snot nosed brats, and here i was hoping for a decent fight." Came a cold voice from over their heads. It did not take long for the genin to locate said voice. There standing on his massive sword was one very tall, very well built man.

"Zabuza Momochi, A-class missing-nin from Kirigakure no sato, Also known as the demon of the bloody mist." Said Naruto calmly.

"Well at least one of you gaki has some promise, so I'll give you a chance to back off now. Give me the old man and I'll let you go."

"That's not possible, we were hired to protect Tazuna-san, and I've yet to fail one of my missions yet and have no intention of starting now." Said Naruto taking a step closer to the missing-nin placing his right hand on the handle of his sword.

"heh you got guts kid, but you can't really think you'll be able to hold me off with that little butter knife of yours?" he laughed before grabbing his own sword and jumping down to the road, standing opposite to Naruto. The only reply he got was silence. "All right kid, you think you can play with the big boy's then so be it, just don't start whining when I start cutting off limbs." And with that he lunged bringing his own massive sword down in a vertical slash, only to be stopped by the blade of a sword that if possible was even longer than his own.

Finding himself being held at a standstill he jumped back to get a better look at his opponent. It was now that he was standing in front of him sword in hand that Zabuza knew just who he was facing. "Well fuck me, if it isn't konahas own angel of death. I'd recognise that sword anywhere. Well I guess that just makes things more interesting, though I have to say you're a lot shorter than I thought you would be."

Naruto gust gave him an annoyed glare, this not being the first time someone had commented on his diminutive size, before turning to his genin. "Stay back and protect the bridge builder, Zabuza is a high A-rank missing-nin, he's far stronger than the demon brothers."

"Ah I was wondering what had happened to them but seeing you here I can guess I won't be seeing them again." said Zabuza.

"I wouldn't say that seeing as how it seems I will be forced to separate your head from the rest of your body soon." Deadpanned Naruto before charging Zabuza and locking blades.

"You know normally I would just create a thick fog and sneak up behind you and cut your head off or something, but to be honest I've been wanting to lock blades with you for a while now, now let's have some fun." Laughed Zabuza before using the weighty of his blade to throw Naruto back a bit and charging with his own horizontal slash only to be blocked once again.

"Your overconfidence will be your end Zabuza." Said Naruto, who followed his statement up with a strong kick to the center of his chest sending him flying back.

That had shaken him and for a fraction of a second and in that time he had lost sight of his opponent. Unfortunately that was all the time Naruto needed taking a short running start he jumped into the ait to bring his sword down for a devastating blow to cut his opponent in half.

Acting completely on instinct he had honed over a life time of killing Zabuza was just able to block the attack, though the force behind it almost caused him to drop his blade.

Pushing off with his own blade Naruto landed a few feet away from the rival sword wielder landing on the dirt road without a sound.

"heh, is that all you got? I was expecting more from someone with your reputation." Grunted out Zabuza trying to convey a confidence he truly didn't feel, though neither had landed a hit yet it was clear to him that the kid was a hell of a lot faster and more agile than him.

"I simply didn't want to embarrass a fellow swordsman such as yourself, but if you wish to fight me at my all than that is your choice." And with that the air around them became so thick with killing intent that even the genin who were standing well out of the way could hardly stand. It was also at this point that Zabuza noticed another change. Before he had noted that his opponent had early glowing blue eyes, now however they were blood red.

Bringing his sword up in to a guarded stance he slowly started to circle his opponent, though prey would be a better word for it now. "Now would be a good time to pull out any jutsu you've been holding back, I would hate to finish our fight too soon."

"Cocky little gaki aren't you? But if you insist, _**Kirigakure no Jutsu.**_"Suddenly all anyone could see was a never ending blanket of white. "Liver, lungs, spine, sub-cervical artery, carotid artery, brain, kidneys and heat. So many to choose from whatever will I do?" he laughed.

"Really now, you think that by simply taking away my sight that you've given yourself some kind of advantage?" he asked.

"Stop trying to sound so confidant, I don't care what you say, without your eyes you don't stand a chance."

"If you believe that so much than come and get me." He taunted

"So be it." he whispered, appearing behind the younger fighter.

"Predictable." Was the only response before the silver haired jounin disappeared in a puff of smoke indicating that it was just a shadow clone. However before he had time to fully defend himself a sharp pain exploded in his side, Naruto's sword only just missing any vital organs.

Staggering a little but otherwise unfazed Zabuza cancelled his obviously useless jutsu. "Lucky shot." Before he gathered his strength and charged once again using the weight of his sword to throw his shorted opponent back.

"You are strong Zabuza, but this fight is not going to be determined by who's the strongest." He said before diapering in a burst of speed only to appear inside Zabuza's guard to deliver a powerful kick to his sternum. "After all what good is your strength if you can't hit me." Again he blurred out of sight, this time reappearing behind him and slashing at his exposed back. Again he disappeared this time appearing back in front of him a few feet from where he struggled to stand. "Before I finish this I just want to remind you that you were the one who wanted to fight me at my full power."

"Yha, yha I brought this on myself. Now shut yer trap and let's finish this." He answered back before hefting his sword into a two handed defensive stance.

Naruto just nodded his head in consent before charging at the larger swords man, his own sword drawn back in preparation for a strong horizontal slash.

A resounding clang of metal hitting metal was resonated throughout the clearing when the two swords men meet. And soon it had become the only way to follow the match as both combatants were moving at speed none of the genin were able to follow.

"Wow, I knew sensei had to of been good, but this is unreal." It had been the first thing said from any of the genin since the beginning of the match. "I mean I can't even follow them anymore there moving so fast." Both Sakura and Sasuke could only nod in agreement. However all their thought were soon put on hold as the bloody figure of Zabuza came flying over the lake they had been fighting on, only to be stopped by one of the trees that surrounded them.

"Dam kid you really are the real deal. Hehe I can see why the call you the angel of death now, all I could see was a flash of black out there, any lesser ninja wouldn't of even seen that. To think that a village of tree huggers could produce someone like you," he coughed up a bit of blood. "You really should have been born in mist, they would have loved you."

"Perhaps, but we will never know now will we. Now is there anything else? Because I would like to be on my way." It wasn't really a question, just common cutesy between professionals.

"Just hurry the hell up already." Was his only response.

Naruto just nodded his head a raised his sword, but before he could strike the killing blow three senbon zipped passed him and imbedded themselves in to Zabuza's neck. Quickly turning his eyes were immediately on the hunter-nin standing in a tree not too far from where he was standing.

"I thank you ninja-san. I have been hunting Zabuza-san for quite some time and if it was not for you I imagine I would be hunting him still for quite some time." he said before jumping down and picking up Zabuza's sword as well as his body and shushaning away.

Naruto gave a suspicion glare to where the two had disappeared before tuning back to his three genin and Tazuna. "Tazuna-san, how far do you live from here?"

"Uh, not far at all just a half-hour walk that away." He said pointing down the road.

"Good." Was all he said as he closed of the supply of demonic chakra, his eyes going back to normal as well as the ever present killing intent dissipating back down to nothing. Unfortunately despite him not landing a hit Zabuza was one tough opponent and with the loss of demonic power flowing through his coils he soon collapsed on the road.

"Sensei!" Screamed Sakura in shock and fear.

"It's all right Sakura, he just suffering from chakra exhaustion, he'll be fine in a day or two." Said Sasuke, who was kneeling beside his now unconscious sensei. "Now get over here Kiba and help me get him to Tazuna's house."

Kiba just nodded as he looped one of Naruto's arms around his neck while Sasuke did the same to the other one. "Tazuna-san if you could lead us to your house, our sensei really does need some rest." Said Sasuke.

Tazuna just nodded his head before setting of down the dirt road that lead to his house.

XXXXXX

"Father, you made it!" greeted a relieved Tsunami. "I was so worried that Gato's men would ... but it's not important, your here and that's all that matters."

"And it's all thanks to these super ninja here, if not for them I would never have made it home." He said as he walked into the house revealing three children with another one slung over the shoulders of the two boys.

"My god what happened?" she almost screamed.

"Naruto-sensei just overexerted himself; he'll be fine in a day or two." Piped up Sakura. That was when she noticed the two pleading looks the boys behind her were giving her. "Oh right, uh do you have somewhere we could set him down, he's not as light as he looks."

"Of course, you can use the spare bedroom up stairs. But did you say sensei? He can't be any older than you all." Said Tsunami as she led them up the stairs to the spare room.

"Yha, but he's really strong. Were only genin," she said making a motion to both kiba and Sasuke. "But Naruto-sensei is already a jounin."

"She's right I saw him fight and he is most definitely a super ninja, now Gato doesn't stand a chance and I can finally finish my bridge and become famous all over the world as the best bridge builder around." Came Tazuna from down in the kitchen quickly followed by what could only be described as maniacal laughter.

"Forgive my father, sometimes he gets a bit carried away. Anyway you can put him in the spare futon here."

"Thank you." Said both boys as they unceremoniously dropped their unconscious sensei on the bed. "Gez for someone who's only as old as we are he sure as hell is isn't light."

"It's the sword." Everyone jumped when the new voice started talking. "The sheath may make it shorter but it doesn't do anything for the weight."

"Sensei, your awake?!" came the surprised voices of all three genin.

"For the moment, but that's beside the point. I just wanted to tell you to rest up, i only have a week to get you ready to face Zabuza again and I intend to make the most of it." was his only reply before he passed out again.

"What the hell did he mean by that? Zabuza is dead, we saw that hunter-nin kill him, didn't we?" asked a confused Kiba.

"I don't know either but I think we should trust sensei on this, at least until he wakes up again and can tell us himself." Answered Sakura.

"Sakuras right. We're just going to have to wait for him to wake up again, but if what he said was true then I'm not looking forward to the next week." Said Sasuke, who had noticeably paled at the thought of the kind of training they had to look forward to.

XXXXXX

It was early the next morning when the silver haired jounin woke up again. It took him a few minutes to remember that he was now in Tazuna's house and not captured by the enemy, thou the fact that his sword was lying on the floor beside him was a pretty good clue. So slowly rising out of bed he placed one unsteady foot in front of the other and slowly made his way down to where he could hear the voices of his genin as well as Tazuna and another voice that he vaguely remembered hearing during the short time he was awake last night.

"Sensei?! You're up." Almost yelled a surprised Sakura as Naruto walked down the stairs to the kitchen.

"gah, not so loud Sakura some of us are still just waking up." whined a semi-conscious Kiba.

"Will both of you shut up. We still have things we need to talk about, and you two arguing like that isn't helping." Snapped an annoyed Sasuke.

Both Sakura and Kiba stopped their arguing and went back to eating their breakfast.

"Hello, I'm afraid we didn't get a chance to be properly introduced last night, I'm Tsunami." She greeted him with a warm voice well serving him his own food.

"Hello tsunami-san. My name is Naruto Uzumaki, but you may simply call me Naruto." He responded.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Naruto-san" she said with a smile.

"It's uh ... nice to meet you as well Tsunami-san, and thank you for the breakfast." He said with a bit unease

"You're welcome, but it's the least I could do after you saved my father yesterday."

"There's no need to thank me, I was merely doing what I was hired to do." He said.

"In any case I really do appreciate everything you've done for us." She said as she turned back to do the morning dishes.

Naruto just sent her a slightly confused look before he schooled his face and turned back to his genin. "Now, last night is still a bit blurry, but I assume I mentioned something about Zabuza?"

"Yha, you said something about only having a week to train us to be ready for him. But he's dead, isn't he?" asked a confused Kiba.

"No, it took me a moment to realise, but that hunter-nin only put him into a near death state, Also whenever a hunter-nin kills one of their targets it standard procedure to remove the head for identification and to burn the rest of the body." He explained. "That's why I said I only have a week to train up, not only will we have to face Zabuza, but his accomplice as well, and I don't know how strong he is either."

"Wait, so that guy with the giant sword is still alive?" asked a now panicked Tazuna.

"Hai, but you can relax. We still have at least a week until he'll be in any shape to fight, and with myself and my team here you have nothing to worry about." He answered trying to assuage some of the older man's fears. "Now as I was saying, I only have a week to get you three in shape so finish up here and meet me out in the forest." And with that he got up from the table and walked out the back door.

XXXXXX

It was only a few minutes later that all three genin were standing in front of their sensei out in the forest.

"Now you all remember the tree walking exercise I had you complete?" It wasn't real a question so no one answered. "Then what I'm about to teach you is a more advanced version. Now follow me." He said as he turned his back and continued on further into the forest until they reached a small river. "As I said the principals of water walking are similar to the tree climbing exercise, however now you have to constantly change the amount of chakra your using to stay above the water." Finished with his explanation he turned back the way they had came and began to walk.

"Hay sensei, where are you going?" asked Kiba.

"Someone has to keep an eye on Tazuna-san, even if Zabuza will not be a threat in the immediate future dos not mean there are not others lurking out there." Was all he said before walking back out of view leaving the three genin on their own.

"Well this doesn't look so hard." Said Sasuke as he focused his chakra into his feet and took a steep out onto the water, only to fall through the surface of the water and end up waist high in cold water.

XXXXXX

It had been a very long, cold day for all three genin. And although Sakura had gotten the exercise down reasonable well by the end of the day even she was in a less than chipper mood. Unfortunately this was the time that Tazuna's grandson decided to make an appearance.

"Why do you try so hard? You're just going to die anyway." He asked in a rather melodramatic tone. "No one can stand up to Gato and his men so you should just go back to were ever you came from well you still can."

"Speak for yourself kid, I'm not going to let some little business man kill me, so just stop talking about things you don't understand." came Kiba's somewhat arrogant reply, Followed quickly by one of Sauske's monosyllabic 'hn's'.

"Why should I, it's not like you know anything about pain and suffering. I bet you never had to suffer in your entire life, living all nice and happy. So why should I listen to you anyway, you all just going to die anyway." He was almost yelling at the end.

"That was a very ignorant thing to say Inari-san" said Naruto in an unemotional voice, not even putting his chopsticks down to talk. "You should not assume things like that about people you do not know. I can assure you that although you feel as though you have suffered greatly there are many people out there who would trade places with you in an instant. I can name at least eight others off the top of my head." He said just as unemotionally as when he started.

"You don't know anything; you don't know how I've suffered. So don't tell me that there are other people out there that are worse off than me!" he yelled before running up the stairs and slamming his bedroom door.

"I'm so sorry about that, but he's never been the same ever since the incident." Apologized Tsunami for her son's behaviour.

"It's all right, but what incident are you talking about?" asked a curios Sakura.

And so Tsunami told the tale of Kiza and how he was once considered the hero of wave, how he had become a father figure for Inari, and how he had stood up to Gato when he had first started to take over their country, and of how he was killed by Gato in front of everyone.

"I know it doesn't excuse his behaviour but at least you know why he's like this now." Finished Tazuna who had to take over the story telling because Tsunami was unable to.

"That's horrible." Said Sakura who was almost moved to tears from the story.

"Well I'm defiantly going to be keeping my eye out for this Gato guy now." Said kiba rather hotly, Even Sasuke had a rather sympathetic look on his face.

It was a few minutes later when all four of them had been left alone in the kitchen after the other two had gone to bed that Sakura broke the silence. "Nee, sensei when you said that you could name at least eight other people who would want to trade places with Inari-san who were you talking about?"

The other two looked on curiously. Also wondering who he was thinking about when he had said that.

"The other jinchuuriki of course, although I have not met them all yet I can safely say that that the others would gladly change places with just about anyone." Was his only response.

"What are jinchuuriki sensei? I've never heard that word used before." Asked the ever astute Sakura.

"It means the power of human sacrifice. However in this context it refers to a person who contains one of the nine bijuu." He said as he pored himself a cup of tea.

"Wait, you mean there are people out there that have a demon inside them?" asked a shocked Kiba.

"Of course, bijuu are immortal, the only way to 'kill' them, so to speak, is to seal them away." He explained, while sipping at his tea.

"Wait you said the other jinchuuriki before does that mean ...?" she left the question at that not entirely sure if she wanted to hear the answer.

"Very astute Sakura, yes I am the jinchuuriki of the kyuubi no kitsune." That statement left all three genin in a shocked silence. After all they had been training under the man for some time now, and despite his aloof nature they had started to look up to the man as something they should strive for.

It was few moments before the silence was broken by an unusually quiet Kiba. "But you're not actually the fox right? I mean it's only sealed inside you right?"

"Very impressive kiba, many people would, and for that matter have not, come to that conclusion. Yes you are correct; I am very much a separate entity from the fox and although I can use its power it has very little influence over my mind." He said as he finished his tea.

All three genin gave a sigh of relief, though now that they thought about it wouldn't make much sense for a demon to train them in the ninja arts, not to mention that if he was the fox there was nothing stopping him from simply finishing what he started when he attacked their village all those years ago.

"So is that why you're so much stronger than us?" asked Sasuke cautiously.

"That is part of the reason yes. As well as the fact that I have been training to be a ninja since the time I was able to walk as well as a few ... other things." He said a bit uncomfortably at the end.

'It's no wonder he's so strong, to have all the power of a demon as well as being trained from an early age.' Thought a relived Sasuke, a bit of the jealousy he felt toward his sensei dissipating in the knowledge that no matter what he did it was unfair to compare himself to someone who controlled the power of a demon.

"In any case it is getting late and we have an early morning tomorrow so let's get to bed." And with that he got up, placed the tea cup in the sink and walked past the three still shell-shocked genin and up the stairs to where Tsunami had prepared a room for them.

XXXXXX

It had been another long night and not for the first time did kiba wish he wasn't quite so stubborn so as to stay out long enough to pass out in the woods. However unlike the other times he found himself being shaken awake. Sitting up with a start he took a quick survey of his surroundings and thankfully found himself in the clearing he had been using as his own training grounds. However unlike the last time instead of an empty clearing there knelling over him was one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen. "Uh ... hi" was all he could think to say.

She just smiled at him before giggling a little at his confusion. "Hi" was all she said in greeting.

"Uh ... not that I didn't mind the wakeup call and all but who are you?" he asked still a little groggy from just waking up.

"Haku, you can call me Haku." She said, her smile never leaving her face.

"Hi Haku-san you can just call me Kiba." he said his head starting to clear.

"Hello Kiba-kun it's nice to meet you." she said as she stood up so that she was now standing over his prone body.

"Ah, well it's nice to meet you to Haku-chan." He said nervously hoping she didn't take offense to his use of the chan suffix.

She just smiled at him and offered a hand to help him up. Grateful for the fact that she took his attention better than the girls back home he grateful accepted her hand and soon they were both standing.

"uh ... not that I don't mind the company but why are you here, this is a pretty out of the way place to take a walk and all?" he asked, even in the face of a pretty girl he was still a shinobi and paranoia was a shinobi's best friend.

"Oh I was just out gathering medicinal herbs; wave has a number of rare ones that can be used for all sorts of things." She answered sweetly completely destroying any suspicion kiba might of had about her.

"Well in that case can I help? It's the least I could do for making sure I didn't over sleep back there." He asked sheepishly.

Again she just giggled and nodded her head. "Sure, I wouldn't mind some company anyways."

"So uh just what are we looking for?" he asked, now kicking himself for not paying attention during the lecture's they had had on medicinal herbs back in the academy.

"I have a few here," she pulled out a small green fern looking plant from her basket. "Here you can have this one; there suppose to grow in the shade." She said as she handed him the plant.

"Right no problem." He said as he examined the plant.

It was a few minutes latter before either one of then started talking again.

"That thing on your forehead, that means you're a ninja right?" she asked

"You mean my hitai-ite? Yha I'm a genin of the leaf." He said as he proudly pointed his thumb at his forehead.

She just smiled and nodded her head in acknowledgment. Then she got a thoughtful look on her face. "if you don't mind my asking, when I found you out here it was because you were training to hard, correct?"

"Ha, well some people might say you can never train enough, but yha I kind of lost track of time and well ..." he said a bit sheepishly.

She just nodded in understanding. "Then, if it's not too much to ask, why are you training so hard?"

"Ah well to get stronger of course. Why else would I be training?" he asked not a little bit confused.

"Then let me ask you this, why do you want to get stronger." She asked

"Ah, well ... so I don't end up as dog food on one of my awesome mission I guess." Was his slightly confused reply.

"But what about your teammates, don't you want to protect them too?" she asked with an ever so subtle frown that went unnoticed by kiba.

"Well yha. But I don't really think sensei is ever going to need me to protect him, but Sasuke and Sakura, my team mates, might someday. So I guess in getting stronger maybe I'll be able to help them sometime." He finished with a contemplative look on his face.

By the end of his little speech the smile had returned to Haku's face. "That's good, I think that whenever we need to defend someone precious to us is the only time we can be truly strong." She said sagely.

"Heh I guess that makes sense. Hay do you have someone precious to you too?" he asked hoping to learn a little more about the girl in front of him.

"Hai, I do. He saved me when I was younger and ever since I've done whatever I could to help him along, in fact the herbs you have been helping me collect are for him. He was injured recently and these will help him a lot." She said with a slightly sad but still warm tone.

"Well then what are we doing just standing here talking, come on let's find some more of those herbs." Kiba said enthusiastically.

Haku just smiled one of her warm smiles and grabbed his hand leading him further off into the forest.

It was almost two hours later when the two pated way, both expressing their hope that they might meet again.

XXXXXX

The week went by quickly and soon all three shinobi found themselves on the mist covered bridge.

"Heh I've been looking forward to this, I went easy on you last time, and I'll admit I underestimated you, but you can bet that's not going to happen this time." Came the disembodied voice of Zabuza.

"Whether or not you held back last time is of no importance, the outcome will still be the same, only this time I will be sure to take your head off myself." Came the icy response from Naruto.

It was then that the mist cleared unveiling both Zabuza and his hunter-nin companion. "Don't get cocky kid, you may be good, but I got years more experience under my belt. Besides, I don't have to kill you, just hold you off long enough for my partner here to deal with the old man."

"You seem to forget that it's not just us here Zabuza-san." Still he used the same cold voice.

"What those snot nosed genin hiding behind you? Please they wouldn't stand a chance."

"I can assure you I would not of brought them here if I did not think they were ready."

"Fine if you want to get you genin killed that's no problem of mine." He then turned to his companion. "Go get them."

"Hai Zabuza-sama." Was the only thing he said before blurring out of sight only to be stopped half way by Sasuke.

"I don't think so; you're going to have to go through me to get to our client." He said as he tried to stab the hunter-nin with one of his kunai only to be stopped when his opponent used a pair of senbon to stop his attack. "Heh you are strong, but what are you going to do now?"

"this." Was his reply as he started to form single handed hand seals.

'Shit' was the only though going through Sauske's head as he jumped back to avoid the large number of ice needles that were flying at him.

Not too far away both Naruto and Zabuza were watching the fight, while watching each other of course.

"Your kids good but he doesn't stand a chance against Haku," Zabuza taunted "Hell Haku could probably give me a run for my money."

"Perhaps, but if that is the case then I will just have to take care of you quickly and finish off your apprentice myself." He said then turned to the remaining two genin. "Sakura stay there and guard Tazuna-san, Kiba if you get a chance try a help Sasuke with his opponent." He ordered before turning back to Zabuza drawing his sword and rushing him.

Zabuza blocked the initial attack easily. "I told you I wasn't going to hold back this time." He said before pumping chakra to his arms and throwing Naruto back.

"You were using weight seals before." It wasn't a question but it did prove to be a slight problem.

"Figured it out in one, it's been so long since I've had to fight anyone strong enough to warrant taking them off I almost forgot they were on there. But let's see how you do now that were matched for speed." He said as he charged swinging his massive sword like it was a simple ninjato.

Naruto ducked the first attack before jumping back and bringing his own blade into a defensive stance and blocking the next incoming strike. "You have gotten faster, I will give you that. But your form is too rigid; you've forgotten that your sword is only one of your weapons." He said before landing a powerful kick to his mid section. This in turn caused him to lose his focused giving Naruto some time to prepare for his next attack.

"Heh, all right kid you really are the real deal, and as much as I would like to continue to lock blades with you I have a job to do and you're in my way. _**Kirigakure no Jutsu.**_" Soon the section of the bridge they were standing on was completely covered in fog even thicker than when they had first meet.

"You may of found me last time, but this fog is almost ten times thicker then before, in fact it's so thick that it even distorts sound, so let's see you find me now." His voice was coming from everywhere again and truly Naruto has a little baffled about what to do. Sure he had a number of jutsu that could take out Zabuza, or at least his mist, in one shot. The problem was that most of them would also take out a good portion of the bridge they were supposed to protect.

As Naruto found himself trapped in Zabuza's mist Sasuke was having no better luck against the mysteries hunter-nin.

"You can't win, just give up now and I will spare your life." Said the masked ninja.

Sasuke, who now had a good collection of small ice senbon sticking out of his body only gritted his teeth and charged once again.

"Very well I can see trying to talk you out of this is imposable, however Zabuza-sama still needs my help so I will end this quickly." With that the hunter-nin started a number of hand seals and soon both fighters were now trapped in a dome of ice mirrors. "This is my ultimate attack _**Demonic ice crystal mirrors.**_ You are now trapped pleas surrender you have no hope of winning now."

"I've never surrendered yet and I'm not about to start now." A slight exaggeration seeing as how he had never fought anyone, besides the demon brothers, to surrender too but the hunter-nin didn't need to know that.

"Very well, if this is how it must be than the least I can do for you is make it quick." And with that the Nin melted into one of the mirror behind him and soon his reflection was in all of them.

'Shit' he found himself thinking this more and more often while he was fighting the hunter-nin but now as he was dodging hundred of senbon it was never so strong.

It could only have been a minute at the most but already he was starting to slow down and the hunter-nin could see this. However before the final blow could be delivered both Nin stopped in their track when the loud yell of _**Dual Piercing Fang**_ was heard and two mini tornados came rushing in and smashed into one on the demonic mirrors. Unfortunately even with the power of two _**Dual Piercing Fan's **_the mirror was unscathed.

"uhg, what are those things made of?" asked a slightly groggy Kiba.

"Idiot what are you doing in here?" yelled an angry Sasuke.

"Saving your sorry ass, that's what." Snapped back Kiba.

"You idiot, now were both trapped in here, if you had wanted to help you should of attacked from the outside!" yell an exasperated Sasuke.

"Well hind sight twenty-twenty isn't it. But I'm in here now any way so we're just going to have to make due, you ungrateful ass." He muttered the last part under his breath.

"If you two are finished I will give you another chance to surrender, please I do not wish to kill you but if you continue to stand in my way I will have no choice."

"Whatever," Kiba then turned to Sasuke. "So what's the plan?"

All Sasuke could do was shake his head at his teammates stupidity.

Back with Zabuza and Naruto things had slowed down to a standstill, Naruto could not locate Zabuza in the mist and any time Zabuza tried to attack he was blocked effortlessly.

"You know this is really starting to get annoying." Growled out an obviously annoyed Zabuza.

"Agreed but this is your jutsu so all you have to do is drop it and I can finish this." He really was spending too much time around both kakashi and kiba; he never talked this much during a battle in the past.

"You'd like that wouldn't yha, but it's just a matter of time, you'll slip up and then I'll finish this." Said a smug Zabuza.

Although the chances of him slipping up were minuscule it really was time he finished this. He only hoped the bridge didn't take any damage. "_**Great breakthrough: wind release.**_" Soon there was almost hurricane force winds blowing across the bridge and, along with pieces of stone and cement, Zabuza was sent flying.

Getting back to his feet shakily he didn't even notice that the silver haired jounin was now standing behind him until he felt Masamune protruding out of his gut. Then just as quickly the shorter jounin was now standing in front of him it time to end this.

All Zabuza could do was grin at the person who would be his executioner.

Back in the dome of mirrors things were not goings as smoothly for the Konaha-nins. Things had been looking up for a time when Sasuke had developed his sharingan but unfortunately by that time both genin were already tiered from dodging senbon, not to mention the fact that they weren't entirely successful in that regard and were already starting to look like pincushions. Unfortunately just as they had developed a strategy for taking care of the missing-nin said missing-nin decided to get serious and sent a barrage of senbon at Kiba, it was then that Sasuke did something that surprise everyone in the dome and took the hit for Kiba.

"I am sorry about what happened, but you can take solace in the fact that he died like a true shinobi." Said the hunter-nin with genuine remorse in his voice.

"Shut up." It came out as a whisper. "Just shut up! He gave his life to protect me!" yelled an irate Kiba.

It was then that the mysterious hunter-nin steeped out of the mirror he had been hiding in. "I am sorry but your friend need not die in vain, if you would just surrender I will spare your life."

"I don't think so. Get him Akamaru!" yelled out Kiba.

It was then the hunter-nin realised her mistake, she had been so focussed on the two genin then she had completely forgotten about the small dog that went everywhere with Kiba. and before she had a chance to turn to face the new threat a mini tornado of clawing biting dog flew into her, braking her concentration causing her jutsu to end.

"Good job Akamaru, now let's finish this. _**Dual Piercing Fang**_!" he yelled before turning himself into a miniature tornado himself and as one they both hit the hunter-nin, Kiba in the chest and Akamaru hitting the nin strait in the face casing the mask to crack.

"Ha let's see you get up from that." he boasted. It was then when the dust had cleared that he finally got to see the hunter-nin unmasked, and to say he was shocked would have been an understatement. "Haku? What the ... I ... what?" was the only thing he could seem to say.

She was barely able to stand but still she refused to give into her body demands. "I'm sorry Kiba-kun but I must do this, Zabuza-sama needed the money from this mission to fulfill his dream."

"But why are you with a guy like him anyway, I mean you're nothing like him. So why do you have to do what he tells you to?" asked Kiba trying to wrap him mind around the situation.

"Because Zabuza-sama is my precious person, I would do anything I could to protect him and his dreams." Said Haku with a slight smile on her face despite the pain she felt in her body.

"But why? I still don't understand why you would follow someone like that." asked Kiba desperately trying to understand what was going on.

And so she told him about her past, how she had been born in Mizu no Kuni, about the blood purges and fear of people with Kekkei Genkai, about how she had been forced to kill her father, how she had lived on the streets until Zabuza found her and given her a purpose in life. "So you see I am Zabuza-sama's tool. But he has no need for a broken tool so please kill me, don't make me feel what it's like to be like that again." she was pleading with him now.

"I ... what ... no it doesn't have to be like that, you can't just give up like that!" he yelled in angry frustration.

"Please, please." She was almost in tears now.

Kiba had no idea what he was suppose to do, on one had she had just killed his teammate and even if they didn't exactly get along he was still a teammate and a friend. But on the other he couldn't get rid of the image of the girl he had spent that morning picking herbs with. Finally, very slowly he reached down and grabbed on of his kunai from his hip pouch. "Are you absolutely sure it has to be this way?" he asked hoping and praying that she would answer in the negative.

The only response he got was a tearful nod. And so he drew back his knife and was just about to plunge it into the tearful girl's heart when a great wind blew along the bridge sending debris and dust flying in the air. Finally when the air cleared they were both meet with the sight of a battered Zabuza with a large gash in his side.

"Zabuza-sama!" cried out the girl when she saw that standing in front of him was a relatively unharmed Naruto with his blade drawn ready to impale the taller jounin. It was then that she made a split second decision she turned to Kiba, took a quick look into his eyes and did something that probable surprised her as much as Kiba, she planted a soft kiss on his cheek then turned and ran toward Zabuza, only making there a split second before Naruto's blade. And so instead of finishing Zabuza his sword was now implanted in the chest of Haku who held it with both hands to keep it from going all the way through her body.

Naruto just gave the girl an odd look not understanding why she had taken the blow.

"I'm sor ... sorry Zabuza-sama, I ... don't think I'm going to be able to help yo ... you any more" she said in-between coughing up blood.

"Its fine Haku, you've done just fine." he said as he hefted his sword to make w horizontal slash that would cut through both Naruto and Haku. It was only because Naruto was able to jump back pulling his sword out in the process and dropping Haku to the ground did either of them make it out unharmed.

Unfortunately Zabuza overestimated his strength and was carried away by the momentum of his sword.

"You might as well just give up; you can't even hold you blade anymore." Said Naruto a little less coldly than normally.

However before Zabuza could come back with any reply out of what was left of the mist came an army of bandits lead by a small business man.

"Gato, what the hell are you doing here? And what's with all the men?" asked a cautious Zabuza all ready having a good idea what was about to happen.

"Hehehe, the plans changed Zabuza, actual I planed on doing this from the start. Zabuza I'm going to have you killed here, I never planned on paying you!" yelled out an excited Goto. "It's so much cheaper this way, I hire you missing nin to weaken the enemy then take care of everyone with numbers, much more economical this way." The only problem was you, you were suppose to take care of all the others but I guess the legend of the 'demon of the bloody mist' was just that a legend, honestly you look more like a cute little baby devil." He laughed.

All the ninja on the bridge were stone still as they looked over the army that Gato had brought with him, each silently trying to calculate their chances.

"Oh look it's that bitch that broke my arm, too bad you killed her," Gato directed this to Naruto. "I bet we could have had all kinds of fun, after I had properly broken her in of course."

"Hay don't go talking about Haku like that!" yelled kiba as he rushed toward the group of thugs only to be stopped by Naruto.

"Don't be foolish, were outnumbered as it is we don't need you rushing in as well." Reprimanded Naruto.

Kiba pretended not to hear him. "And you, how can you let them talk about Haku like that, she really cared about you ya know."

"Shut up kid." Was Zabuza's lifeless response.

"Don't you feel anything at all? Weren't you two always together?" Kiba wasn't entirely sure why he cared about this so much, but he did and he needed to know the answer to his question.

"We shinobi are simply tools. What I wanted was her blood not her. As I was used by Gato I used her. That's just how the world works there are those that are used and those who use others, that's the world we live in as shinobi." Answered Zabuza.

"Do you ... do you really mean that?" asked kiba more put off than he had ever felt in his life.

The only response Zabuza gave was silence.

"No I won't accept that, she loved you, she really did, enough to give her life to save yours. Are you really telling me that that means nothing to you? Do you really ... really not feel anything? she threw away her life for you without a dream of her own, to die as a tool, that's ... that's just too much!" yelled out Kiba in-between sobs, tears freely flowing.

"Kid ... you don't need to say anymore." Said Zabuza as he turned to face kiba tears streaming down his face. "It pained her to fight you; she not only fought for me but for you guys to. She was always to kind." He looked down to the prone body of the girl only a few feet away. "ya know I'm glad I fought you guys in the end, and you may be right, shinobi are still human, maybe we can't become emotionless weapons." He then turned to face Kiba fully." look kid I want yo to do me a favour," then using all his strength he tossed his sword to Kiba who caught it but summarily fell on his but under the weight of it. "I want you to protect Haku with this kid; I want you to look out for her."

"But she's dead, how can I protect her now?" asked a now confused kiba.

It was now that his attention was focussed on her body that he saw that her chest was still moving up and down.

"just remember to look out for her, and if anything doe's happen to her, you better believe I'll find some way out of hell and kick your ass." For the first time in a while a smile could be seen on Zabuza face. "Now as for you" he now turned to face Gato and his men. "I think it's time you learned just why they call me 'demon of the hidden mist.'" And with that he grabbed two kunai from a compartment in his pants and charged the group of thugs.

"That enough kill them!" yelled Gato as he retreated to the back of his army.

And with a war cry the army of thugs charged forward to kill the charging Zabuza. However Zabuza soon proved just why he was an A-rank missing-nin, stabbing and slashing his way through the army leaving dozens of body's in his wake. However he did not make it out of his suicide charge uninjured and by the time he was standing in front of Gato himself he had a number of swords, spears and knives sticking out of his back.

"No, no go away, leave me alone." cried out Gato now faced with the bloody spectre of what could only be described as a true demon.

"I don't think so Gato, no I plan on taking you to hell with me, and then will see whether I'm a true demon or just some baby devil." And with that he plunged the two bloody kunai deep into Gato's neck and kicked his lifeless corps over the edge of the bridge. However as Gato's blood corpse sunk into the depth of the oceanic strength gave out and he promptly collapsed.

For a few minutes all the hired hugs just stood there around Zabuza's body all afraid to even approach him. It was during this time that sakura let out a loud scream breaking the silence. "Sasuke-kun your alive!"

However the happy moment was shot lived as it seemed the noise had also broken the remainder of the thugs out of their stupor and now without their boss to pay them they started to look to the village with hungry eyes.

"Hay now don't forget about us now!" yelled out one of the braver ones. "You dam ninja killed our meal ticket, now were going to kill ya and them were going to take what we want from that town over there as compensation!" then as one the reminder of Gato's army charged.

Naruto just looked at everyone else on the bridge. "Tazuna-san, I would recommend looking away, this is not going to be something you will want to see."

Of course Tazuna took this as not watching them all die, but he was an old man and he would be dammed if he didn't face his death head on, soon he would be regretting that decision.

After giving his warning he turned to his genin. "Stay there and if any one makes it past me it will be up to you to protect Tazuna." Getting a nod from his genin Naruto turned to the charging thugs, and in true shinobi fashion disappeared from sight only to reaper in the middle of the mob. "I will only give you one chance to lay down your arms and walk away from here." He said his voice having taken back its cold edge.

"Hehe you think were intimidated by you, your just a kid!" yelled out one of the closest thugs.

"Very well then." And with that he closed his eyes brought his sword up into an offensive stance and then when he snapped his eyes open they were no longer the creepy glowing blue but a deep blood red. "You have made your choice." And with that he stretched out his free hand the thickest concentration of men. The army of men stopped for a moment trying to figure out just what the silver haired kid was up to when the noticed that the temperature around them was starting to increase to uncomfortable levels. "_**FLARE!**_" suddenly a giant cone of fire sprouted out from the ground surrounding a large number of men, already there screams fading into nothing. As the flames died down every one strained themselves to see just what had happened. However the only thing that moved was the dust that had been picked up by the wind.

Taking advantage of his opponent's shock he once again sped off, only this time instead of simply appearing somewhere else he cut down all the men who were standing in his way. Arms, heads and other assorted body parts soon feel to the ground, soon followed by the rest of the body as he quickly moved throughout the mass of men, hacking and slicing until there was no one left standing.

All the genin as well as one old bridge builder were left standing there stunned by the carnage they had just seen. And although not everyone was dead yet, they all soon would be from either blood loss or infection seeing as how there wasn't a single body in that field of corpses that had all its limbs.

And there he was blood dripping off the end of his sword but otherwise unmarred from the massacre he had just initiated. "Tazuna-san I believe you will be able to finish your bridge unmolested now, and I apologise for any damage that the bridge may have sustain during the battles of the day."

All Tazuna could do was nod dumbly, deeply impressed by the boys skills and a little bit frightened.

"You three grab Haku-san and bring her back to the house, will let her heal up there." Like always his voice betrayed no emotion that might let them know his opinion on the situation but kiba in a hurry to make sure his new friend was safe didn't bothered trying to figure out their sensei and simply hurry over to the fallen girl's side.

He then turned back to Tazuna. "Tazuna-san I hope you don't mind the extra company, but I assure you that we as well as Haku-san will be leaving as soon as the bridge is finished."

"Uh, no problem, baring any major problems it should only take a week at the most to finish and I'm sure Tsunami will have no problem having another mouth to feed, especially now that Gato's dead and the price of food will be dropping." Said Tazuna still a little wary about the man standing in front of him.

"Very well then, I will remain behind to clean this up." He then pointed to his genin. "They will be going back to your house to tend to Haku."

XXXXXX

A/N well there we go it took a while longer than I would of liked but seeing as how its twice as long as my usual chapters it all works out.

As you can see I finished the wave arc in on (long) chapter, the reason is I'm trying to get through the parts I'm keeping cannon so I can start on my original stuff. Unfortunately I have that planed to stat after the Tsunade arc so there still a while to go.

Also some of you may be wondering about Inari and tsunami, easy answer Naruto left a shadow clone, but seeing as how motivational speeches aren't his forte Inari didn't gather the town's people.

Next Haku, one yes he is a girl (and I don't care what cannon says Haku's way to girly looking to be a boy). Two in case you haven't noticed I've been trying to make characters a mix of their Naruto selves and a person from FF7. I'll let you al guess who's who, not that it's very hard to figure it out so far, but if you get it right I'll give toy an E-cookie (not the bad virus kind either)

Anyway I think that's it for now, so till next time.

And as always reviews make me type faster.


	5. Chapter 5

BURN

"And she's still alive?" asked a bemused kakashi.

"yes." Was all he said not even turning his head to look at his friend.

"So let me get this strait, you not only let a potential enemy live but brought her back with you?" it wasn't accusatory just simple astonishment at the other Nin's actions.

"As I've already said she was no longer a threat to the mission, even less so with the death of Gato and Zabuza. As for bringing her back with us that was Kiba's decision and he was rather adamant about not leaving her there." He had been explaining his mission to wave for almost an hour now and the fact the Kakashi kept questioning him on the same point was starting to get on his nerves. "I thought you would be happy or something, this seems very much like something you would have done in my situation, but if you prefer I could always rectify the situation and kill the girl."

"No, no that's fine. It's just a little shocking is all. After all this is the first time I've ever heard of you leaving an enemy alive. Just worried that maybe you were losing your edge was all." He joked.

Naruto just shook his head and continued to look up at the night sky. "I think I've been spending too much time around you, I'm actually starting to understand your jokes, even if there not funny."

"Oh my, was that some kind of witty comeback? Than yes I would have to say you have been spending far too much time around me. Perhaps I should arrange for some different company, maybe Anko would be willing to offer her services." Kakashi laughed at the visible shiver that went down Naruto's spine.

"I believe I told you to never joke about that woman, I've seen a lot in my life but she scares even me." It was a long running joke for Kakashi. Almost a year ago she had seen him in a fight first hand and, well given her personality; she had developed what kakashi had gracefully called a schoolgirl crush on him. And well what Anko wants she has a habit of getting, usually in very unorthodox and painful ways. Suffice it to say Naruto had only just been able to escape her plan to trap him in her apartment and ever since he had adapted what most would call a healthy paranoia about anything to do with her.

"As I can see you're now properly thankful that you have such charming friends as myself I'll take my leave of you now, but remember everyone's getting together tomorrow, and with the chunin exams just around the corner I'm sure the conversation will be engaging." And with a wave of his hand and one of his little eye smiles he disappeared into the night.

XXXXXX

"You wanted to see me Hokage-sama?" asked a slightly confused Kakashi.

"Ah, Kakashi and only half an hour late, I'm honoured." Greeted an amused Sarutobi.

"About that, you see there was this little old lady and well one thing lead to another and somehow I found myself locked in someone's basement, thankfully I was able to extricate myself but alas I was already so far behind schedule that this was the earliest I was able to get here." He explained with a straight face.

"right." Said the Hokage incredulously. "In any case I called you here just to ask a few questions, specifically about a mutual acquaintance of ours."

Now that kakashi knew what this meeting was about his back straightened a bit and he took up a more professional manner. "I assume that this mutual acquaintance would be Naruto correct?" he asked.

"Yes, and before you get all defensive I assure you he's not in any trouble. I just wanted to know your opinion of his mental state now that he's been working as a genin sensei. After all I may be his kage but you are still the closest thing he has to a friend, and I would imagine he's far more open with you than he is with me."Answered the Hokage in a reassuring voice.

Kakashi visibly relaxed. "Of course Hokage-sama. And in answer to your question I would have to say that this was the best idea you've had in some time. Er, what I mean is it was one of many excellent ideas you've come up with. He much more talkative now, he's even starting to understand some basic emotions, even if he doesn't really feel them himself."

The Hokage let out a visible sigh of relief. "That's good to hear Kakashi. To be honest I had my doubts that this would work but if what you say is true than it seems my fears were misplaced."

"I'm glad to hear that sir. But if there's nothing else." Said kakashi.

"Oh, yes, your dismissed kakashi." He dismissed the jounin with a wave of his hand all the while never losing the smile smile that had found itself on his face.

XXXXXX

Despite the unusual events of their latest mission the next day found things had not changed as much as they had though. Other than the fact that they now had an extra sparing partner, their training schedule had not changed.

"So this is how you train all the time?" asked an inquisitive and slightly winded Haku.

"Yha, Naruto-sensei is a real slave driver." Mumbled kiba from his position lying on the ground where he had all but passed out.

Haku just smiled at her new precious person. "Look at it this way. You can be sure none of the other genin teams are being pushed this hard so you're bound to be much stronger than your peers." She said encouragingly, though even as she said that her mind wondered back to her training under her late master and how he had pushed her just as hard during her own training.

"I guess you have a point there. And it would be nice to show the rest of them just how strong I've gotten." Said Kiba as he struggled to his feet.

"I'm sure they'll all be impressed, but it's getting late and you look like you might fall asleep on the walk home." Said Haku with a bit of concern in her voice.

"I guess, not to mention we have training again tomorrow." He agreed. "So I'll see you again tomorrow then?"

"Of course, it's ... fun training with you," both Kiba and Haku blushed at that, though Haku's was much less noticeable. "I mean it fun to be able to train with you and your team, and there aren't many other people who train at the same level I'm use to for that matter." She quickly said trying to cover up her earlier slip.

Kiba could only shake his head. Personally he thought their sensei was an insane workaholic but if the girl said she liked training at this level then so be it. "Well then I'll see you tomorrow." He said with a wave of his hand and started to walk down the road toward the part of the village that held the clan compounds.

Haku just stood there and waved back until he was out of sight. She then turned back toward the forest that encircled the training area. "I know your there." She called out.

"Of course you do, but the fact that I'm not even trying to hide my presence makes your accomplishment rather moot." Was the reply she got as the silver haired man walked out of the trees to stand only a few feet from her.

In all honesty after spending some time around the man she still wasn't sure what to think of him. On one hand he had spared her life and even brought her back to the village with him, on the other she knew she was scared of him. It wasn't even the power he controlled, though she would be lying if she said that that wasn't part of it. It was also the way he acted, he was cold and ruthless even when there was no need to be. It also become obvious just from talking to him he either had no emotions or had suppressed them to such an existent that they may as well not of existed in the first place. And all that together lead her to the conclusion that if for whatever reason he ever felt she had became a risk that he would not hesitate to kill her or anything else for that matter. "Well then obviously there was something you wanted to see me about then, or else you would not have shown yourself." She said a little more coolly then she had planned, but it seemed that the jounin in front of her paid it no mind.

"You're correct. I simply wanted to warn you, that while I understand why you have decided to ... attach yourself to my team that I will not hesitate to remove any ... threats that happen to reveal themselves. And I assure you I am more than confidant in my skills to handle said threats." He said all of this evenly without even a hint of a threat in his tone.

"I see, and I can assure you that I mean no harm to either you, your team or this village." Was he quick reply.

"I'm glad to hear that, and I suggest you keep this conversation in mind for the future, because this is your one and only warning." And with that he disappeared back into the woods and this time even as she strained all her senses she could not detect even a hint of his presence.

XXXXXX

It was almost becoming routine now and truthfully Naruto was almost starting to enjoy meeting with Kakashi and the other jounin sensei's. Almost, Kakashi still had to drag him along and he was sure that the others were still a little unnerved by him, but seeing as how he was still somewhat uncomfortable around them he wasn't going to hold it against them.

"So the chunin exams are coming up soon, right?" asked Kakashi, knowing full well that they were. "Any of you thinking about entering you team's?"

"Honestly Kakashi, they've only been genin for a few months now. You can't honestly think that any of them are ready for something like the exams." Scolded an annoyed Kurani.

"Now, now Kurani-chan don't go speaking for the rest, besides just because you don't think they'll win is no reason not to enter them." Said Kakashi in his I-know-everything voice. Kurani just huffed and looked away from the one-eyed man.

As usual Naruto just sat there for the most part sipping his sake. However he felt duty bound to help out one of the few people he felt he might be able to call a friend. "Well I can't speak for the rest of you; but I plan on nominating my genin for the exam. Even if they don't pass it will still provide them with more real life experience, something no amount of training can do." He stated simply before returning his attention back to his drink.

"But people die in these exams all the time! Don't you think you might be pushing your team too hard, they only have a few months experience under their belts after all." Exclaimed Kurani levelling a glare she normally reserved for Kakashi at him.

"Ninja die all the time out in the field as well, far better for them to gain experience in a somewhat controlled environment then out there where the is no proctor to save them. Besides the simple fact is as ninja we need to understand that sooner or later were all going to die, if the only thing they learn from this exam is that then that's enough for me." Responded the short sliver haired jounin in his usual monotone.

Kurani looked shocked and the rest were not much better. Sure they all understood that this was something all ninja had to learn but to force the lesson on a bunch of green genin was still a bit much.

"Don't you think that putting the lives of your genin at risk is a bit too much just to teach them a lesson?" almost shouted Kurani

"I'm confident that they can survive whatever the exam might throw at them." Was his simple response.

Once again Kurani was at a loss for words and simply huffed and turned her attention over two the other two genin senseis. "Well?"

Both Asuma and Gui just shared a look before Asuma asked "Well what?" in confusion.

She stared at him in annoyance. "Well are you going to enter your genin or not?" she asked.

"Oh ah that ... well ... ah ... you see it's just that Naruto-san does have a point and well I might of already told them that I was going to enter them." He flinched at the end expecting a slap to the back of his head from his off again on again girlfriend. When no hit came he looked up to see the one thing he was hoping to avoid. There she was just sitting there giving him a heated glare and at the moment he knew that he was not getting laid again anytime in the near future.

Kakashi almost laughed when he saw the silent message pass between the incensed kononichi and the chain smoking jounin sitting across from him. Unfortunately that was not to last, as if sensing his 'eternal rival's' amusement Gui seemed to feel the need to ruin it by speaking.

"Yosh I see now that it is time to let my genin enjoy their spring time of youth by letting them participate in this most youthful of contests. Now you will all be able to see how brightly the flames of youth will shine in my most youthful students. In fact if they do not make chunin then I will do 500 push ups, and if I cannot do that I will run around the village ten times on my hands, and if I cannot." He was quickly silenced from when he noticed that none of the other were even paying attention to him.

"Well then Kurani-chan it seems that your team will be the only ones not participating this year." Said a smug Kakashi.

Kurani just slammed her head on the table, before getting up putting a wad of bills on the table and turned to leave all the while grumbling something about all men being morons, or something to that effect anyway.

Kakashi just watched her as she left before turning to the others. "Well it looks like all the rookie teams will be participating this year.

XXXXXX

Once again training had been brutal for all of them. Though recently it seemed that their sensei had been pushing them harder than normal, it had reminded all of them of their first week under him.

"Uhg, I can't feel my arms." Whined Kiba who had been swinging his sword in different kates for the past three hours.

"Stop complaining Kiba, I'm too tired to even walk over there and shut you up." Said Sakura who had all but passed out on the ground.

Sasuke too was felling the after affects of the days training, but unlike his two team mates he had no desire to vocalize his complaints.

"Well done all of you." came the emotionless voice from behind them. "In fact seeing as how you have all progressed so far from when you first started I've decided that you all deserve ..." he paused to consider his wording. "A reward."

Now that had caught all of their attentions. Just getting the man to praise them was almost imposable, but to actually get a reward? Now that had never happened before and to be honest it put all of them on edge. Especially seeing as how none of them knew just what the man would consider a reward, for all they knew it might be an increase in their training regime.

Seeing the looks of trepidation on the faces of his genin actual brought a small smile to his face. It was small and only lasted a split second but he found that in that split second he had felt something he had not felt very often, amusement. As such he made a note to mess with them more often, after all it was not every day he found something that amused him outside of a good fight. "As I was saying, due to the progress you have all made I have nominated you all to participate in the upcoming chunin exams." He watched as the looks of trepidation turned to ones of relief then curiosity then finally excitement. "They'll be held in three day's at the academy. I would suggest you rest up until then." And with that he handed them there entrance papers and walked back off toward the town.

More than a few minutes passed in silence as all three genin stared down at the slips of paper in their hands, however as always the silence was not to last.

"Hell yha Akamaru. Now we can show everyone just how awesome we really are!" yelled an excited Kiba.

The sudden noise of their teammate brought the other two genin out of their stupors, and although neither one voiced their opinion as loud as Kiba it was easy to tell that they were all excited by the prospect of participating in something like the chunin exams.

XXXXXX

The next three days went by quickly for the three hopeful chunin and soon they all found themselves standing outside of their old academy.

"So you guys ready to kick some ass?" asked an excited Kiba, Akamaru piping in with some loud yips.

Both Sasuke and Sakura just rolled their eyes at their friend's enthusiasm. Though, even if they didn't show it they were both silently agreeing with the obnoxious teammate.

"Eh you two are no fun, now let's go before were late." Said a dejected kiba as he hefted his massive sword onto his shoulder and started to walk toward the front doors to the academy.

"Whatever you say dog breathe, just be sure you don't accidently cut someone's head off on the way." Quipped Sasuke as he and his female teammate flowed a safe distance behind.

"Honestly it happened once, just one time and still you won't let me hear the end about it. Besides unless I'm mistaken you head is still firmly attached to your shoulders, so no harm no foul." Said a rather annoyed Kiba as he continued to march up the stairs that would lead them to the exam room.

However whatever retort Sasuke was going to say died in his through as he felt the subtle effect of a Genjutsu take hold in his chakra system. Looking to both his team mates who had stopped as well he saw that they too had noticed that they were now under some kind of illusion. "Just play it cool for now, It might be part of the exam or something. Just keep any eye out for anything odd and play along." He ordered.

Both just nodded and continued to climb the stairs to what seemed like the third floor. Instantly all three knew the situation, someone hap put up a Genjutsu over the signs so it seemed that they were on the third floor instead of the second.

"Look at all those morons, even I could make a better Genjutsu than that." scoffed kiba as he pointed to a large group of people standing outside a door marked 301.

"Shut up you moron, the more people down here the less competition in the rest exam." Whispered Sasuke, as he looked out over the crowd of genin. "Now let's keep going I don't want to attract their attention." And with that all three of them quietly slipped passed the assembled genin and up the stairs to the third floor.

XXXXXX

The first part of the exam had been almost too easy once they had figured out that they were suppose to cheat, well for Sasuke and Kiba anyway Sakura had been able to answer most of the questions on her own. In any case the three of them now found themselves standing outside of a large forest surrounded by a tall fence topped with razor-wire.

"All right gaki's listed up!" Yelled the proctor for this part of the exam. "Just encase some of you dimwits have forgotten I'm Anko Mitarashi proctor for this part of the exam! And this lovely patch of hell on earth behind me is training ground 44 also known as 'the forest of death'! Over the next five days you're all going to be calling it home. Anyways the next part of the exam is simple, each team will either be given a heaven or earth scroll, all you have to do to pass is show up at the tower in the center of the forest with one of each! How you get the other scroll is up to you." she finish with a shrug of her shoulder indicating she really didn't care how they got them. "As for rules, there really aren't any. Just don't open the scrolls until you're in the tower, there's a time limit of five days and you need every one on your team still in one piece to pass, other than that you little snots can do whatever the hell you feel like. Now any questions?" the killer intent she was giving off was enough to dissuade even the most hardened shinobi to think twice about raising their hands. "No questions? Good. Now I'll be handing out a waiver, don't bother reading them all they say is that if you end up a bunch of red smears on the forest floor I can't be held accountable. Anyway once you're done with that take them to that tent over there and exchange them for you scroll after that go pick a gate and wait for the signal. You get all that? Good, now hurry the hell up!" she yelled

"I'm not sure if I should be scared or turned on." Whispered Kiba to his teammates.

Sasuke just rolled his eyes at his horndog of a teammate. Sakura however decided to display her disgust in a more physical manner; as such Kiba soon found himself laying face down on the ground with a large lump on his head.

XXXXXX

It had only taken a few hours for them to come across their first opponent. Luckily not only was he alone but he was also horrible at the henge. Unfortunately he didn't have a scroll on him.

"gezz what a moron. I mean what kind of loser can't even do a prober henge" Commented Kiba as they ran through the trees at a brisk pace.

"This coming from the guy who got suckered by a simple Genjutsu." Said Sasuke, commenting on the fact that said Nin had cast a Genjutsu on Kiba when he went off to use the bathroom.

"Hay that could of happen to anyone!" yelled an indigent Kiba.

Sasuke just responded with a "Hn" before increasing his pace slightly to take point.

However they were soon interrupted by a powerful blast of wind that had the unfortunate side effect of blowing Kiba off their branch and off into the forest underbrush.

"What was that?" asked a confused Sakura.

"I don't know but be on guard." Said Sasuke as he activated his sharingan and started to search their surrounding for any enemy Nin.

"gezze what the hell hit me?!" yelled a confused Kiba as he stumbled out from the underbrush by his two team mates. However he was soon cut off by a number of shrunken thrown at him by Sasuke. "Hay what the hell?!"

"At least you can do a proper henge but you forgot about Akamaru." Said a calm Sasuke.

"Kukuku, I see I can't get anything past your eyes can I Sasuke-kun?" chuckled the fake Kiba.

Sasuke just snorted at the other shinobi. "Whatever, I can tell your alone so surrender your scroll now and we won't kill you."

"Oh this?" he questioned as he pulled out an earth scroll. "Well why don't you come and get it." and with that he leaned his head back and swallowed the scroll whole.

Both Sasuke and sakura where stuck on the spot just from watching the weird shnobi literally eat his scroll.

"Oh what's this, are you shy Sasuke-kun? Well in that case..." he blurred out of sight before reappearing in front of Sasuke. "I'll introduce myself first." And with that he landed a devastating blow to Sasuke's gut that sent him flying back into one of the many trees that made up the forest of death. "tut tut Sasuke-kun I was expected much better from the deposed Uchiha genius

Sasuke just grunted before regaining his composure. "Sakura stay back and act as support, I'll handle this guy." And with that he activated his sharingan he started throwing punches and kick at the fake kiba.

"Kukuku. Yes that's more like it Sasuke-kun. Unfortunately as you are no you are no threat to me." He said as he effortlessly dodged all of Sasuke's punches. "However if that's all you have to show mw I'm afraid that I simply have no use for you." and with that he once again landed a palm thrust into the young Uchiha's sternum knocking him to the ground.

Glaring up with increasing anger in his eyes Sasuke quickly jumped back and ran through a number of handseals before shouting out _**"Fire style: Immortal phoenix fir" **_and out of his mouth six medium sized fire balls shot toward the surprised nin.

However in the blink of an eye the other nin flew through a number of handseals and a large wall of water shot up from the ground and extinguished all the fiery balls that were headed his way.

However just as the fake kiba was about to gloat once again a number of impossibly thin wires started to dig into his skin and in the matter of a few seconds he had been pinned to one of the trees directly behind him.

"Not so smug now are you." said a winded Sasuke, and with his opponent helplessly tied to a tree Sasuke ran through the handseals for his favourite jutsu _**"Fire style: Grand fireball."**_ And with that a large ball of fire impacted the tied up Nin and burned hard enough to all but melt the wires holding up the other Nin.

With a tiered but satisfied smile he cancelled the jutsu when the screaming of the other nin had ceased. However as he approached the body of the dead Nin but to his horror it quickly dissolved to mud.

"oh yes very impressive, in fact you have surpassed all my expectations and for that I think you deserve a present." As Sasuke looked to the owner of the voice his blood ran cold. Early in their training their sensei had given each of them their own bingo book and he had taken to memorizing the information on all the S-rank missing Nin (especially on his brother). As such he now knew that he was absolutely fucked.

"Oh is that recognition I see in your eye's Sasuke-kun?" asked a cheerful Orochimaru. "I'm glad to see that even among the new generation my name still instils such fear. But as I was saying you have impressed me enough to give you a very special present." However before he was able to do anything a large sword cam hurtling out of the trees and imbedded itself in the tree when the snake sanin had previously been standing.

"Hell yha I finally got that to work!" yelled an excited Kiba from his position from on top of the blade.

"Kiba what the hell are you doing? Don't you know who that is? We need to get out of here!" yelled Sasuke.

"And they called me an idiot. You really thing this guys just going to let us go?" asked Kiba incredulously.

As much as he hated to say it Kiba was right, it was obvious that the sanin was here for something and it was unlikely that if that something involved them then the man wasn't just going to let them runaway. "Fine, but if were even going to survive this then we're all going to have to work together."

"Oh and do you really think that I'm going to let you do that in the first place?" asked orochimaru who in a burst of speed had appeared behind their pink haired teammate.

"Sakura!" both boys yelled out but it was too late, with a quick hit to the back of her head she was out like a light.

Jumping down Kiba quickly wrenched his sword from the tree and made a mad dash to their down teammate. However it was only his training with Naruto-sensei that he was able to sense the sword strike that had been aimed at his abdomen.

There standing in front of him was a slightly surprised Orochimaru, a long double sided sword in his hand. "My, a mere genin being able to block my blade, how unusual." Was all he said before lazily swinging his sword at Kiba's head forcing the younger Nin onto the defensive. "But do you really think that you stand any chance against me?" he asked slowly increasing the speed he swung his sword at until finally it was all Kiba could do to keep all his limbs.

"You know it's so rare that I come across someone who can give me a proper challenge in a sword fight it's almost a shame to have to end this so quickly, but alas I do have a prior engagement to see to so I'm afraid I'm going to have to end this now." And with a burst of speed and power Orochimaru broke through Kiba's guard and deliver a devastating slash from his right shoulder to his left hip, not deep enough to kill but more than enough to but the dog Nin out of action.

The snake-sanin once again turned his attention to the sharingan user. "Now that there are no other distractions to worry about we can finally get down to business?" said Orochimaru with a grin on his face.

He was screwed, and he knew it. He may have been confident in his skills but he wasn't stupid. There was no way he was going to win. Hell the only reason he and his teammates had even lasted this long was because the bastered had been playing with them. Well if he was going to die then he was going to do it like a true shinobi. After all he de dammed if he was going to run from a fight like he had when he had run from Itachi all those years ago. So sliding in to his fighting stance once more he waited for the other Nin to make his move.

"Ah still up for more are we Sasuke? Unfortunately I am pressed for time so I'm afraid I won't be able to play with you anymore." As he said this Sasuke's eyes widened as the Nin in front of him crumbled into a pile of mud. However he did not have long to be surprised as almost as soon as he mud clone in front of him disappeared a sharp pain was felt in his neck and soon his entire world became pain.

But just as the blackness of unconsciousness was about to take him he could faintly hear the voice of the man who had just bitten him.

"This is but a taste of the power I can offer you Sasuke-kun. And if you survive then fell free to seek me out and I will unlock all of your potential." And with that the darkness overcame him fully and he knew no more.

XXXXXX

A/N

Just a few things, firstly I'm sorry it took so long to get this out but what are you going to do sometimes inspiration is hard to come by. Also tell me what you think of this chapter, personally I'm not that happy with the fight between orochimaru and team 7 but i needed to get this thing out.

Lastly next chapter will hopefully be the rest of the chunin exams as well as the invasion. After that all I have to do is get Tsunade back and then it's on to the original stuff. So just be patient I do my best work when I get to stuff I don't have to worry about trying to follow canon about.

Anyways that's it for now so till next time.


	6. AN

Greetings to the fine folk that moderate our site.

Myself, along with many, have been writing and posting on your fine site for years now, some of the better examples of up and coming writers out there are now suddenly finding some of the stories we've come to love at risk of being removed without the chance to even rectify our errors.

For some, that means the permanent loss of a story. While I don't have anything that I believe violates your terms of use, there are those out there that are never able to recover a story in its original form, this is something I find to be almost worthy of a legal action, as while we cannot claim ownership of a character, the stories are OURS and simply destroying them is something that is inexcusable.

It's quite easy to simply add an MA rating, additional filters or even a simple requirement for a free membership to read the stories presented here, and would cut down on hateful anonymous reviews and posts at the same time, so I have to question as to why such a thing, in all this time, simply wasn't added.

If you're worried about falsification of a registration then have an appropriate disclaimer and then there can be no dispute, you took your steps and the PARENTS didn't monitor their children, if that is even your concern. If it is more of a personal view or desire then please at least let people know and give them a chance to remove a story that you and yours find offensive, most people on the site are actually rather cordial when it comes to such requests.

While I cannot say for sure if this letter will even reach those that may be willing to listen, of if it's more akin to a wide spectrum purge in preparation for something bigger, please understand that you are going to be looseing a LARGE number of your writers, and thus your income from a lack of readers if there is not some level of action taken to help with this situation.

For those that may agree with this, please feel free to sign on and send this to the support server, maybe we can get some movement on this.

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ENTER THE STARGATE

KJC2025

If you could do what some other authors have done and post this petition as a temporary new chapter on some of your stories to help spreed the word? It would help a lot it's how I found out about this.


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